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ANZCA’s Mission Statement is “To serve the community by fostering safety and quality patient care in anaesthesia, intensive care and pain medicine”.

ANZCA Council and the Boards of Faculties:

1.   support the concept of death with dignity and comfort, and the right of terminally ill patients to receive expert palliative care. They further support the provision of adequate pain relief and treatment of other symptoms to relieve suffering in the terminally ill. Relief of pain and suffering and not the death of the patient is the primary intent.

2.   recognise that there are many patients with severe pain associated with non-terminal cancer, or with conditions other than cancer, who have to suffer for prolonged periods because of ineffective treatment of the underlying disease. They are further committed to the relief of pain and suffering in such patients in order to restore quality of life, and to minimise the risk of such patients seeking to end their life.

3.   respect the right of mentally competent patients to decline treatment or to request treatment to be withdrawn, even if such treatment may be life saving.

4.   do not support the institution or continuation of medical interventions which offer no benefit to the patient.

5.   do not support the application of medical interventions in which the primary intent is to end the life of the patient.

6.   respect the individual beliefs and rights of Fellows and patients.

Associated Document: PS45 – Statement on Patients’ Rights to Pain Management

COLLEGE PROFESSIONAL DOCUMENTS

College Professional Documents are progressively being coded as follows:

TE Training and Educational

EX Examinations

PS Professional Standards

T Technical

POLICY – defined as ‘a course of action adopted and pursued by the College’. These are matters coming within the authority and control of the College.

RECOMMENDATIONS – defined as ‘advisable courses of action’.

GUIDELINES – defined as ‘a document offering advice’. These may be clinical (in which case they will eventually be evidence-based), or non-clinical.

STATEMENTS – defined as ‘a communication setting out information’.

This document is intended to apply wherever anaesthesia is administered.

This document has been prepared having regard to general circumstances, and it is the responsibility of the practitioner to have express regard to the particular circumstances of each case, and the application of this document in each case.

Professional documents are reviewed from time to time, and it is the responsibility of the practitioner to ensure that the practitioner has obtained the current version. Professional documents have been prepared having regard to the information available at the time of their preparation, and the practitioner should therefore have regard to any information, research or material which may have been published or become available subsequently.

Whilst the College endeavours to ensure that professional documents are as current as possible at the time of their preparation, it takes no responsibility for matters arising from changed circumstances or information or material which may have become available subsequently.

Promulgated (as a Statement): 1997

Reviewed: 1999

Date of current document: Oct 2004

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