Liverpool Care Pathway - A Crime Of Convenience

Professor Patrick Pullicino : 29 per cent of NHS deaths now involve the Pathway. On average, a patient dies 33 hours after entering the Pathway.

A Pathway Of Convenience

Premeditated murder –

but they will be found neither wanting in their care nor ‘guilty’ of the charge because they have followed a protocol promoted by government and endorsed by the DOH and by NICE –

The Liverpool Care Pathway.

The Telegraph

Jean Tulloch, 83, died in March last year at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh where she had been treated for a urinary tract infection.

Her son Peter, from Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, believes there is evidence to suggest doctors actively attempted to hasten her death by withdrawing her food and fluids for 30 hours.

He reported the matter to police and it is now to be investigated by the Scottish Fatalities and Investigation Unit (SFIU), a branch of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, which orders criminal prosecutions and investigates deaths.

The unit has the power to trigger a police investigation if the circumstances appear to be suspicious.

Although a wide-ranging review of the use of the LCP is under way in England, Mrs Tulloch’s case is thought to be the first individual death to be officially investigated in the UK.

The LCP is under review…

Now, the LCP is in the dock.

And how do you plead…? 

NHS Lothian has previously strongly denied allegations of wrongdoing, saying that the care Mrs Tulloch received in hospital was not “anything other than compassionate, professional and in her best interests”.

Dr David Farquharson, medical director, said: “As an investigation is about to begin regarding this matter, it would be inappropriate for us to comment.”

29 per cent of NHS deaths -

That is a figure which suggests around 130,000 deaths a year.

The BBC reports -

Where are the missing 90-year-olds?

“ Sadly, they've already died. They just didn't live as long as statisticians had predicted.”

“ In other words, the mortality and life expectancy calculations actuaries and statisticians rely on have been too optimistic.”

"Life expectancy of a man aged 65 has increased from 14 years in the early 1980s to 21 years now - so that's a 50% jump in just three decades," says Richard Willets, director of longevity at insurance company Partnership.

Which is why, when the 2011 census was published, he went straight to the statistics about elderly populations.

And there the data revealed a surprise.

"There were 30,000 fewer people aged in their 90s than previously believed," he says - 429,000 instead of 457,000.

"That was about 15% fewer men; 5% fewer females. There were also fewer centenarians than previously believed - the number of female centenarians was [out] by about 10%."

130,000 deaths a year...

How many of those 130,000 would have lived on to make up the missing numbers?

Do the actuaries actually have their calculations wrong, or did they fail to take into consideration the secretive roll-out of the LCP into all areas of care?