Liverpool Care Pathway – The Stitch-up Begins

Norman lamb has been contributing to this subject on radio talk shows in recent days. He has been contacted by constituents. He has heard the uproar around him. But he is not listening.

The following Telegraph article reports -

In some cases trusts have set goals explicitly requiring them to ensure that a set number of dying patients are placed on the pathway.

Actually, these goals have been set by the DOH CQUIN protocols! Once targets are set, they must be met.

Here is The Telegraph -

Liverpool Care pathway concerns must be challenged, says minister

Failings in the operation of a controversial death "pathway” for terminally ill patients must be challenged, the care minister insisted.

Norman Lamb: Liverpool Care pathway concerns must be challenged Photo: ITN

By John Bingham, Social Affairs Editor

8:31PM GMT 01 Nov 2012

Norman Lamb said he was “absolutely determined” to prevent a repeat of cases in which families of people given intensive end of life care claimed they were not consulted or even informed when treatment was withdrawn from their loved-ones.

He was speaking after research for The Daily Telegraph disclosed that hospital trusts have been paid millions of pounds in recent years for hitting targets associated with use of the Liverpool care Pathway.

In some cases trusts have set goals explicitly requiring them to ensure that a set number of dying patients are placed on the pathway.

Other payments were made for ensuring that the regime was operated to set standards.

The LCP, which involves withdrawing invasive treatments or tests from patients in their final days and hours, was developed to ease suffering in dying patients.

In some cases it can involve withdrawing food and fluids in combination with administering powerful pain relief.

Doctors have hailed it as a means of giving dignity and comfort to dying people but it has been mired in controversy amid claims that it may have hastened death or been used on people who were not imminently dying.

It has been adopted by around 85 per cent of hospital trusts in England, almost two thirds of whom have received some form of financial reward.

Mr Lamb insisted that the payments had ensured a “good outcome” in many cases by ensuring that families were consulted.

But he said that it was important to “take note” of cases where this had not happened or families not properly involved.

“That is completely wrong, and families are right to complain when that happens,” he said.

“It’s that sort of approach which has to be challenged and I’m absolutely determined myself to make sure that we do challenge that.”

But speaking on the BBC Radio Four’s World At one programme, he added: “I want to hear where things have gone wrong, and I want to make sure we address that, absolutely, but an awful lot of good things have happened in recent years to improve the experience at the end of life.

“25 years ago, doctors simply weren’t trained in what to do at the end of a patient’s life – that led to some dreadful experiences.

“Doctors are now better-trained to understand when it’s appropriate to take appropriate actions to ensure that the patient can die with dignity, and that’s what this should be about ultimately.”