Liverpool Care Pathway - A Pattern Of Circumstance

There is a pattern of circumstance, here repeated, in other cases reported on these pages that cannot be just circumstantial...


Please sign the petition, also listed opposite: South London Healthcare trust: Independent external Enquiry URGENT.

Emrys Robe went into Princess Royal Hospital in Farnborough last February following a fall at his home in Eltham. Three weeks later, he was dead.

According to the GSF Prognostic Indicator Guidance, a Sentinel Event (e.g. a serious fall) is classed as a Step 2 General Indicator of decline and suitability for consideration for LCP.

If shortcomings have led to an avoidable death it may be hard to prove for precisely the reason that any 'care' regime which promotes and directs to a terminal outcome is going to have precisely that effect!

The PAG (Patient Action Group) says:

"From going in he should have been discharged five hours later. Instead, he started on a conveyor belt towards the death ward."

After a blood test, doctors said he had an infection and kept him in overnight. He was then confined to a bed, received no physiotherapy and was left with a blocked catheter three times which lead to septicaemia developing.

Treatment was then stopped and Mr. Robe was put on the Liverpool Care Pathway.

His daughter, Helen Ellis, says:

"Three weeks he was in hospital as they continued to make mistake after mistake. A dignified and proud ex-Navy gentleman went from being a happy go lucky man to basically a vegetable.

"He fought for this country to end up treated like an experiment animal. He fought and struggled to breathe for over three days. They have taken away all my wonderful memories.

"All I can remember is his cries for his mum as he struggled and struggled."

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While there, Ms Ellis says other patients were treated "appallingly", with one elderly man left sitting in the same chair for nine hours, and others left with bulging catheters or face down in a plate of food.

Following her father's death Ms Ellis met outgoing trust administrator Matthew Kershaw to discuss it, during which he promised a review into 42 different issues she raised.

But Ms Ellis, who says hospital staff are too scared to speak out about their concerns, claims he also agreed to an external review of the whole trust, something the trust denies.

She said: "They need to have an external review. I don't want to see people going through what we did.

"I haven't been able to sleep since. Everytime I think of those old people who hadn't been seen and all they wanted was a drink."

To contact the group, email patientactiongroup@yahoo.com or sign the petition calling for an external inquiry at change.org