Liverpool Care Pathway – Just A 'B in the Sky' Review?

Mr. Hunt, shame on you, sir.

This is The Telegraph -

Controversial Liverpool Care Pathway 'a fantastic step forward,' says Jeremy Hunt

The controversial Liverpool Care Pathway for patients who are dying is “a fantastic step forward” in the way hospitals support the terminally ill, Jeremy Hunt has said.

The Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt Photo: EDDIE MULHOLLAND

By Tim Ross, Political Correspondent

3:35PM GMT 30 Dec 2012

The pathway, designed to ease the suffering of patients in their last hours or days of life, has come under intense scrutiny in recent months.

It can involve the removal of drugs, nutrition and hydration if they are judged to be of no benefit to the patient.

But a number of families have complained that their loved ones were put on the pathway without their knowledge, while some doctors have claimed it can hasten death.

The Health Secretary insisted the protocol was far better than alternative arrangements and allowed those close to death to be comfortable and to spend their last hours with their families.

Mr Hunt told LBC radio: “It’s a fantastic step forward, the Liverpool care pathway, and we need to be unabashed about that.

“It’s basically designed to bring hospice-style care to terminally-ill people in hospitals. Inevitably people do die in hospital but they weren’t getting the quality of care in those final few hours.”

Mr Hunt said many patients did not want to die “with lots of tubes going in and out of their body” but would prefer their final moments with their families to be “dignified”

“The Liverpool care pathway was developed with Marie Curie, with Macmillan, with Age UK and a number of other charities, to try and bring that dignity to people in their last moments,” he said.

A national audit recently disclosed that almost half of dying patients who were placed on the controversial pathway were not told that life-saving treatment had been withdrawn.

The study suggested that about 57,000 patients a year are dying in NHS hospitals without being told that efforts to keep them alive have been stopped.

It also revealed that thousands of dying patients were not given drugs to make them more comfortable.

Mr Hunt said patients and their families must always be fully informed. “What should never happen is that people should be put onto that care pathway without patients being fully in the loop and their families and relatives being fully in the loop as well,” he said.

The minister confirmed that he was looking into reports of problems with the care pathway.

“I would be very sad if as a result of something that is a big step forward going wrong in one or two cases we discredited the concept that we need to do a lot better to give people dignity in their final few hours,” he said. “Most people would prefer to die at home – we need to do a lot better.”

Mr. Hunt, the review - if it isn't all just a stitch-up - is still ongoing. Should the outcome of the review be prejudged in this manner? You should not be offering any personal opinion you may have at this time.

Are you instructing the jury as to what the outcome of the review should be?

Is the outcome already decided and the review just an elaborate and cruel sham?

Mr. Hunt, a man in your position really should know better. Do you really hold us all in such contempt that you think these comments do not really matter? 

The Health Secretary should not be expressing an opinion at this time.

It is tantamount to the judge directing the court and finding for the defendant while the loaded jury is still out.

Just how 'far-reaching', how 'independent' is this far-reaching independent review? What is Mr. Lamb's commitment really worth when his colleagues undermine his credibility? 

Mr. Hunt, you were under pressure for your handling of the BSkyB takeover bid. Lord Justice Leveson said he had seen no "credible evidence of actual bias" in that case. We are trusting you, sir, that there is no "credible evidence of actual bias" in this case...

"In a hard-hitting speech last week Mr Hunt expressed concern about the culture of the NHS, warning that too many patients were forced to experience "coldness, resentment, indifference" and "even contempt". 

"He warned that in the worst institutions a "normalisation of cruelty" had been fostered."

(The Telegraph)

Can a failing health service be charged to operate the killing machine that is the Liverpool Care Pathway?

A disqualified driver in the driving seat of a faulty vehicle driving along a pot-holed Pathway will wreak devastation.

"Nearly 3,000 patients are dying a year because of needless hospital blunders, figures reveal.

Another 7,500 are severely harmed after being wrongly diagnosed, given incorrect drugs or poorly cared for.

Experts warn that such mistakes will increase because already overstretched staff will be unable to cope with the higher numbers of patients coming into hospitals.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has admitted that there may still be ‘pockets’ of poor care like that revealed in Mid Staffordshire in 2008, where hundreds of patients died needlessly.

Figures obtained by Panorama in a BBC documentary to be aired tonight show that in 2011/12, a total of 2,864 patients died following mistakes by hospital staff.

This is up almost 5 per cent compared to the previous year when there were 2,726 deaths."

(MailOnline)

Mr. Hunt, you appear to be of the opinion that the problem lies not with the vehicle - the Liverpool Care Pathway - but with the drivers of the vehicle...

Mr. Hunt, there is a problem with the drivers, certainly...!

But the vehicle needs to be taken off-road immediately and consigned, straight way, to the breakers yard before it may do further damage and harm!

We may then consider what corporate liability there is for the taking of life that has ensued under this wicked regime...