Liverpool Care Pathway - To Accept The Inevitable Is Not To Surrender To It

Special report on the Liverpool Care Pathway

The Basingstoke Gazette runs a special report on the LCP today. Dr Lara Alloway, lead clinician of North Hampshire palliative care service and associate medical director (end of life) at Basingstoke hospital, does an excellent job of selling LCP and there is nothing really new in what she says.

However, in the same issue, (click here), local MP, John Glen, makes an interesting and valid comment -

IN the past week I have attended a debate on the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) – a system of drawing up individualised plans for the care of dying patients that aims to keep them and their loved ones informed and involved to the end.

At a time when illness and emotion can make it so difficult to communicate clearly, any means of making sure that individuals’ wishes are known and respected is to be welcomed.

However, accepting that a death is inevitable is not the same as knowing that it is imminent and I think that, although it is an uncomfortable subject to discuss, people should be wary of embarking on a path that precludes hope of recovery, with all the possible implications of that mindset.

The government is conducting a full review into whether the LCP is succeeding in bringing more dignity and peace of mind to people in their final moments and I will await the conclusions with interest.

John Glen (Salisbury, Conservative)

Indeed, 'accepting that a death is inevitable is not the same as knowing that it is imminent' and 'people should be wary of embarking on a path that precludes hope of recovery, with all the possible implications of that mindset'.

Well said, sir.