Advance Care Planning and resuscitation (CPR)

During your treatment the medical team may talk to you, or your family or carers, about dying.

In an emergency, healthcare professionals may have to make rapid decisions about your treatment, and you may not be well enough to discuss what is important to you.

ReSPECT (Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment) empowers you to guide your medical team on what treatments you would or would not want to be considered for.

ReSPECT (Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment)

You may already have an idea of what you would like to happen to you if you become seriously ill. It would help your kidney team to let us know what this is. This is known as Advance Care Planning.

You may want to complete something formal, as suggested by the NHS website. The Dying Matters website also has information for people approaching the end of their life, and information for carers, relatives and friends. If you are unsure about anything, please talk to someone in your kidney team.

Very ill people are at risk of dying, and may need resuscitation if their heart stops beating. Sometimes resuscitation may cause more harm and will not help a person to live. Your kidney team will talk to you or your family if they think resuscitation would not be helpful to you.

There is a very helpful booklet on the Dying Matters website:

Your Guide to decisions about Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) (pdf)

Printed copies are available on the Renal Ward or Dialysis Unit.

There is a lot of useful information on the Dying Matters website.

Last reviewed: 09 May 2025

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