Liverpool Care Pathway - They Have The Licence To Kill...

They keep no records...

This is hemel today -

Published on Friday 18 January 2013 09:00

Hospital chiefs say they cannot reveal how many patients were put on the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway during 2012.

Nationally, the end of life care has attracted criticism from the relatives of patients, with some saying they were not told that a loved one had been placed on the pathway until it was too late.

But it is unclear how many patients in Watford Hospital, which now covers Dacorum after Hemel Hempstead was downgraded to an urgent care centre, were put on the pathway.

West Herts Hospital Trust spokesman Paul Gough said: “The trust is unable to provide the number of patients places on the Liverpool Care Pathway as this information is recorded in individual patient records and is not held centrally.”

And the trust said that even if the Gazette submitted a Freedom of Information request the figures would still not be provided.

Hospice of St Francis boss Dr Ros Taylor has revealed that one of the charity’s doctors regularly visits Watford hospital to give training to junior doctors on how to deal with the sensitive issue.

“It is about doctors and nurses recognising that time is short and then having conversations with relatives and patients,” said Dr Taylor.

“What seems to have happened in some places is that the communication part has been missed out.”

The good cause is hoping to work more with hospitals and care homes in the future. “We would like to look into having hospital nurses come for placements at the hospice,” said Dr Taylor.

The Liverpool Care Pathway was introduced in the late 1990s to ease the suffering of the dying, but has been branded as ‘backdoor euthanasia’ by some critics. At first it was available to terminally ill cancer patients but has now been rolled out to all dying patients.

Mr Gough said: “As part of the trust’s policy for patients being considered for the Liverpool Care Pathway, a member of the palliative care team works closely with the patient or, where this is not possible, with their family and next of kin.”

Hospitals are treating the Liverpool Care Pathway as just another 'thing to do' (Telegraph).

So, they keep no records...

This is swindon link -

18 Jan 13

Liverpool Care Pathway and End of Life Care 18/01/13

In November 2012 the Government announced a general review of the use of the Liverpool Care Pathway.

Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust responded to a Freedom of Information Enquiry in December 2012 by LINk participant Karyse Day with this information about the use of the Pathway at the hospital.  Care minister Norman Lamb has announced that Baroness Julia Neuberger is to chair the review. National health executive online reports that evidence sessions will be held and recommendations will be made about the LCP in the summer of 2013.

This letter from Dr Eric Holliday GP at Eldene Surgery was originally published in the Swindon Advertiser on 6 January 2012.

"I’d like to offer your readers a bit of reassurance that care for people in their final few months of life and last illness is a subject of both national and local concern.  The royal colleges of both GPs and nurses have produced a charter to outline what good end of life care should be.  The majority of local GP surgeries are also using a web-based communication tool that collects information from patients and their carers and families in order to share it (with their permission) with the hospital, the out of hours GPs and the ambulance service.  Anyone who is concerned that they haven’t had a chance to discuss what their wishes are about location and nature of their care, can address these and make sure there is the best chance of remaining in control.  Diagnosing that death is imminent is difficult;  but the more the patient and family have thought about their wishes in advance and discussed it with their GP, community nurses or hospital consultants, the less it will feel that euthanasia is being practised.  Euthanasia is rightly illegal, and not necessary with good end of life care that we hope to deliver across Swindon in 2012 and into the future."

That bears looking at again...

"Diagnosing that death is imminent is difficult;  but the more the patient and family have thought about their wishes in advance and discussed it with their GP, community nurses or hospital consultants, the less it will feel that euthanasia is being practised.  Euthanasia is rightly illegal, and not necessary with good end of life care that we hope to deliver across Swindon in 2012 and into the future."

Is this really saying what it seems to be saying?

 "Euthanasia is rightly illegal, and not necessary with good end of life care that we hope to deliver across Swindon in 2012 and into the future."

This really is saying what it seems to be saying:

Euthanasia is murder; it is illegal - but not necessary when there is an end of life pathway that is legal and actually commended as 'good practice' to serve the same purpose.

This is a GP speaking, very likely with his 1% death list all set up and running.

The LCP (Liverpool Care Pathway), the ICPs (Integrated Care Pathways), and other locally 'tweaked' variations of the end of life protocols are but a euphemism for euthanasia.

Mr. Lamb has taken objection to the word 'Pathway'.

Perhaps, the EoL protocols could be placed under one all-embracing, one size fits all umbrella - the LKP (Licence to Kill People).

This is from the Six Steps to Success document downloaded from Bolton Medical Learning Zone at Bolton NHS - End of Life Care.

Carmel Wiseman,
End of Life Care Programme Manager
- 01204 462384

"This tape will self-destruct in five seconds..."

They keep no records...