Liverpool Care Pathway - "A Toxic Brand"

When the problem is the branding, it's time to change the labelling. You don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

This is Dr. John Hughes on BBC Radio Norfolk –

I think the problem with the Pathway, the Liverpool Care Pathway, is that it’s become rather a toxic brand.

This is NHS England –

The Leadership Alliance for the Care of Dying People -

We have identified 10 outcomes which we think should be the hallmark of good care in the last days of life. Each of these outcomes has a set of guiding principles for professionals, and we have explained what this should mean for people who are approaching their last days of life, and their families. 

Instead of replacing the LCP with another tool, we want these outcomes to act as the ‘ground rules’ for care in the last days of life. 

If we can agree these ‘ground rules’, then we can also match guidance, education and training to make sure that this care can really happen on the ground, whether this takes place in hospital, care homes, at home or elsewhere. 

These outcomes and guiding principles have to be clear, strong and workable. So, we want to hear your views – help us to improve on them wherever you think this is possible. 

Our proposals are set out in a written document. You can contribute to the feedback by signing up for one of the 12 regional workshops that we are running across the country or submitting your response on our website

Bee Wee - Leadership Alliance for the Care of Dying People

These 10 outcomes are labelled A. to J. and may be found in the Engagement Document. It is these outcomes that Bee Wee wants feedback on. It is these 10 outcomes that are up for discussion; nothing else.

The Engagement Document is all about tidying up the loose ends. They're not interested in disagreement or dissent.

NHS England says –

In July 2013 the independent review of the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) published its report ‘More Care Less Pathway’. In response to its recommendations, the Leadership Alliance for the Care of Dying People was set up to lead and provide a focus for improving the care for these people and their families in response to the recommendations made in the report.

The alliance is chaired by Dr Bee Wee, National Clinical Director for End of Life Care at NHS England. Member organisations include:

A list of organisations is provided. All are complicit in their uncritical, unwavering support of the LCP. All are complicit in their blatant denial that anything was wrong or could be wrong - either with the LCP itself or in its application. Even when the press - local and national - took up the gauntlet to protest and to report what was happening, it was dismissed as 'anecdotal' and as press sensationalism. The Daily Mail was even referred to dismissively by some as "The Daily Fail".

Amongst the member organisations listed is the CQC. This is a regulatory body set up to police the health service in both the state and the private arena.

A regulatory body must always stand apart. If it makes itself a part of the processes it is set up to regulate, it becomes – deliberately or unintentionally – complicit in its actions and compromises its critical stance. Its independence is nullified. A regulatory body stands on its own; it is always in opposition. It is a watchdog to enforce standards and compliance to those standards.

The reputation of the CQC is already tarnished, its impartiality questioned by its actions and its treatment of Kay Sheldon. Have things changed at the revamped CQC? Perhaps not...

They have an agenda to stick to and they're sticking to it.

In view of the disgraceful manner in which the NHS has conducted itself - and been conducted - it is paramount and imperative that a Leadership Alliance for the Care of Living People be set up. Essential and immediate protection is required for all living people at whatever stage of their life's journey who seek medical attention and advice.

The end of the road is the end of the road but, if you ain't dead, then you ain't dead yet.

"These people". We are all living until we die. On life’s journey, from conception or birth, we are set out on life’s path to its terminus – death. From the moment of conception or birth, effectively, we are ‘dying’. Therefore, life is precious – every last second of it – and living matters. Every extra day is a bonus!

These people in this Bee Wee consortium are a vile Death Cult. We are all individuals and, if Holism is now a watchword of the NHS, we should be treated as such, in the context of ourselves and not as a group of 1% to be singled out for the Lambherd to set his trained pack of GPs on to groom us up and pen us off for the cull. 

The End Of The Road

Ev'ry road thro' life is a long, long road
Fill' d with joys and sorrows too
As you journey on how your heart will yearn
For the things most dear to you
With wealth and love ‘tis so
But onward we must go

Keep right on to the end of the road
Keep right on to the end
Tho' the way be long, let your heart be strong
Keep right on to the end
Tho’ you're tired and weary still journey on,
Till you come to your happy abode
Where all you love, you've been dreaming of
Will be there, at the end of the road

With a big stout heart to a long steep hill
We may get there with a smile
With a good kind thought and a mile end view
We may cut short many a mile
So let courage ev’ry day
Be your guiding star alway

- Harry Lauder