Sunday 4 August 2013

Liverpool Care Pathway - Ten Years In The Waiting

A report into the 81 deaths at Gosport is in the public domain, at last...




Deaths in custody are taken seriously (as they should be) by the lefty journalists in their lefty papers, and when there are riots and pillaging on our streets, they even excuse that.

Deaths in care are dismissed as propoganda or looked upon as an aberration or anomaly. Cops behave that way; carers don't, particularly those working in the holy cow that is the NHS which the holier than thou have seated on a pedestal and worship as a golden calf. Moses would slam his tablets to the ground at the sight of them!

And when there is a swell of protest and outcry of despair at what has happened, they will not be roused or rally to support that protest but, rather, stand side by side with puffed-up Tory Lords who chose to dismiss such claims of wrong-doing as 'anecdotal'!

But deaths in care are and continue to be reported. "Excess deaths" continue to be the indicator that something has happened, is happening.
The Review has slammed the use of the LCP, but still reserves some good thoughts for the LCP itself. There are other ‘last days’ pathways, though, and these are all still up and running.

As mentioned in these pages, the Welsh Collaborative Care Pathway, for instance, had a 'fundamental rewrite' and was relaunched­­­ because of 'adverse publicity'. Now, the same is happening to the LCP? These should not be looked to to replace the LCP; rather, they should be subjected to scrutiny and review themselves.

The Review recommends:
More use of evidence based prognostic tools and education and training in them is needed.


It was Dr. Barton's claim that she could look at someone and tell that they were dying.

The 'Surprise Question' recommends to GPs that they do just that in their hunt for their 1%.

This quote is in the Review. They are all quite, quite arrogant:
And this is the SPICT 





SPICT is a trademark of the University of Edinburgh and NHS Lothian but it was not found to be registered at the Intellectual Property Office.

The SPICTTM  is sometimes used in combination with the "Surprise Question":
Would you be surprised if this patient died within 12 months? 
[See the GSF Prognostic Guide]

Way back in the 90s, the Barton Care Pathway was in full swing at Gosport War Memorial. Hers was but one more of many that have a long tradition in the NHS of doctors 'playing God'.

The Shipman care pathway and the Grigg-Booth protocol, for instance...

Further reading -

Liverpool Care Pathway - The Trailblazers

Liverpool Care Pathway – And Other End Of Life Care Pathways
Liverpool Care Pathway – CQUIN-gate!

They may pretend or deny any personal allegiance to a god-head but - inapproprate yet fitting - always possess the 'god complex'.

A government blockbuster just released by the DoH Studios, ten years in the making - but no box office blockbuster this, it is hoped - has just been slipped out quietly to get lost in the weekend news and buried beneath the LCP sham review.

This is a report, for all intents and purposes, into a Care Pathway - the Barton Care Pathway - that might as well be the Liverpool Care Pathway.

This is  Portsmouth News –




Ian Wilson, 53, of Beryton Road, Gosport, has been one of many families waiting for the Baker report to be published.
It looked into 81 deaths at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital (GWMH) during the 90s, after concerns were raised about patient care under Dr Jane Barton.
And after a 10-year wait, the Department of Health published the report yesterday.
It revealed an over-prescription, and in some cases use, of opiates, and note-taking had been poor.
Mr Wilson’s father Robert, 74, had been to Queen Alexandra Hospital, in Cosham, for a shoulder injury.
He was transferred to GWMH, to wait to be put into a nursing home.
But he died in October 1998, and the cause of death was put down to bronchopneumonia.
Mr Wilson said: ‘I can see why the report has been kept back for so long.
‘It shows a consistent over-prescription of opiates to an inappropriately wide group of patients.
‘A high proportion of deaths were because of bronchopneumonia, that is a side affect of diamorphine, and that was my dad.
‘He was in for respite, they were trying to find a nursing home for him. He wasn’t on any painkillers at QA.
‘This is a damning report and I can see why they kept it from us.
‘I’m glad it has come out now, it’s taken a long time, but gives us more of an angle.’
Richard Baker, a professor of clinical governance, who worked on the Harold Shipman inquiry, started his review in 2002.
The government would not publish the report until the final inquest into deaths from that period took place.
The report found the use of opiates ‘almost certainly shortened the lives of some patients, and it cannot be ruled out a small number of these would otherwise have been eventually discharged from hospital alive.’
It said opiates were often prescribed before needed.
Dr Barton had a higher percentage of patients whose cause of death was put down to bronchopneumonia, and prescribed a higher number of opiates before a patient’s death.
It also found there ‘were no clear clusters of deaths’, but the ‘proportion of patients at Gosport who did receive opiates before death is remarkably high’.
Gosport MP says report makes ‘sobering reading’
FOR the past three years, Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage has been asking for the results of the Baker report to be published.
The report, which was revealed yesterday, looks into the deaths of 81 patients at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital (GWMH), from the 90s.
Ms Dinenage said: ‘It’s sobering reading. I’m pleased we can finally look at the reports, and the families that have been waiting 10 years can look at it.
‘It makes troubling statements about the anticipatory prescription of medicine, and of inadequate note-making.
‘But the comfort we can take is changes have been made at GWMH.’
Why it’s taken 10 years for report to come out
THE government called for a review in to the deaths of patients at Gosport War Memorial Hospital.
Dr Jane Barton, who used to practise at the Forton Medical Centre in Gosport, was also a clinical assistant in the former Dryad and Daedalus wards at the hospital in Bury Road.
Between 1996 and 1999, 12 patients died in her care, instead of recovering.
Gladys Richards, 91, was one of the patients who died in Dr Barton’s care, and her daughter Gillian Mackenzie approached police with concerns, which prompted an investigation by Hampshire Constabulary.
In 2002, Richard Baker, a professor of clinical governance, who worked on the Harold Shipman inquiry, was appointed to look into 81 deaths at the hospital.
The government said the report would not be published until inquests in to all of the deaths had taken place.
In April 2009, an inquest was held in Portsmouth into the deaths of five patients under the care of Dr Barton.
A jury ruled drugs prescribed by the GP contributed to the deaths their deaths.
Following the inquest, the General Medical Council (GMC) held a hearing into Dr Barton’s fitness to practise.
She was found guilty of ‘multiple instances of serious professional misconduct’ relating to 12 patients who died at the hospital, but was not struck off.
In 2011, Dr Barton, applied to the GMC to have her name removed from the register.
The inquest of Mrs Richards took place in April, and yesterday the Department of Health released the report.

Ten years down the line, will there be a Baker report into the LKP that reveals it, at last, for the medical holocaust it has been?

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