Liverpool Care Pathway - They Saw The Glass Half-Full

Every life is unique and precious. No matter what, it really isn't over till it's over. However little chance, if there's a chance, you seize it.


It really is true to say that the judgement call is always - If this one can be brought back from the brink...

The fish may be stranded on the shore but you still throw it back into the water.

This is Mail Online –

This is Communitarianism -

It's rationale is the rationing of finite medical resources according to strictly defined Communitarian principles.

This child's life is pretty low on the priority curve.

And THREE DAYS of CPR...? We know what Volandes has to say about CPR!

This is the Communitarian Complete Lives System treatment priority curve:

Govind Persad BS, Alan Wertheimer PhD and Ezekiel J Emanuel MD published this in The Lancet  (Principles for allocation of scarce medical interventions) in 2009.

It's all about whose life is and is not worth saving. Every procedure and protocol now operates, in practice, using a flowchart as a guide.You could almost run it through as a new software tool for medical professionals to utilise to determine level of treatment priority, even for GPs to select their 1%.

This redefines the physician’s duty. The duty is no longer to the patient but to what is considered the greater good. That is the Communitarian definition of health care.

Would Zeke have considered this futile and cruel...?

Perhaps not, if it were his own child.

Would our home-grown LCPers...?

Children deserve EoLC, too.

Perhaps so, looking at these dispassionate tweets -

Kate Granger tweets:

"Peaceful, pain free, holding her hand and after mouthcare with sherry..."
"Now I've had a first hand personal experience of the LCP Im even more convinced it is the right way forward..."
"Gran would not have wanted us moping around. She didn't do moping. So back to work to start my new job in orthogeriatrics it is..."

George Julian replies:
GeorgeJulian ‏@GeorgeJulian
"@GrangerKate Sorry for your loss but delighted to hear of the manner of your Gran's death. She'd have been very proud of you am sure."