Liverpool Care Pathway - Better A Life Sentence Than A Death Sentence

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It is hard to comprehend that my mother's life was taken almost four years ago. That is four years of struggle to squeeze out the truth. We did not imagine, could not have imagined, at the outset upon this long and winding pathway that, almost four years later, we would still be fighting to serve justice to my mother's memory.


There have been times when we have almost fallen by the wayside. Yet, we could not fail this lady whose own determination saw her through the trials and terrors of the Blitz and much more besides. So, we picked ourselves up and fought on.


We did not accept fobs and fancies presented to us to side-step and ignore the matters presented for scrutiny and submitted for attention. It has been a bizarre, almost Kafkaesque experience, but it was only through dogged determination that what facts have come out have come out at all.


We are grateful to the Healthcare Commission that these facts were revealed and owned up to in their report. However, to be informed that failings have been acknowledged and that learnings have been taken is insufficient and inadequate and too late. We need to know that those responsible have suffered stern rebuke; that they have offered contrition and remorse for what they did do and regret for what they did not. Only then can come closure and may we walk away from this.


What is very frightening is that these people in what is only, after all, the lower echelons of the NHS in the PCT are, after all, public servants. Do we really expect our servants to lie to us, to conceal the truth? Should we tolerate this?


This is from a letter to the Healthcare Commission sent on 11th March 2009 -

"I also asked you to confirm – or deny – that it is within the remit of the PCT to conceal facts, that is, to lie by omission rather than by commission. I asked that you please respond to this clearly and unequivocally and without benefit of double-talk? I ask you now, once more, is it within the remit of the PCT to conceal facts and to lie? 

I commented in this respect that, everywhere, we encounter deviousness and artifice in our dealings with those to whom we petition in this so-called ‘complaints process’ we must follow to obtain information and resolution to our concerns. We have stated previously that this did not begin as a complaint, but that it has become one. We were well justified in asking: Were Dr Shipman’s misdemeanours also raised and were concerns also dismissed in like frivolous fashion by PCT and Healthcare Commission alike? Our own experience would suggest this to be the case."

There was no answer to this in the letter of response. Public officials, like politicians, are well-skilled in cherry-picking the questions they want to answer!


This family feels it has been run through the mill and practically ground into submission. Is this what this so-called ‘complaints process’ is really all about, that somewhen, somewhere down the line, we will quietly go away? Well, we haven't and we are still here.


This is from a letter to Surrey Primary Care Trust sent on 6th August 2008 -

"So, my mother’s death is just an insignificant detail, then, that has initiated action points to improve your services where you have found shortcomings? How useful for you. You slur my mother’s name and insult her memory!

We have said this before and it bears repeating here: This whole ‘Complaints Process’ is all part of a carefully devised charade to psychologically wear down those who petition you until we quietly go away, mentally and physically exhausted from the effort! And so the Commission present you with an issue which was raised with you but which you conveniently chose to ignore and now you must deal with. Round and round in circles!

No, you are not going to be let off so lightly. This family is still here. We will not disappear so easily. We do not want your insincere apologies. You cannot deny that malpractice has occurred and you do not. Yet, clearly, you attempted to cover this up, declining to report to us the details which have now come to light."

There was no answer to this in the letter of response. Public officials, like politicians, are well-skilled in cherry-picking the questions they want to answer!