Liverpool Care Pathway - The Importance Of Remaining Zeke

The measure of the man is in his metal...
And its all about brass.






The Review

In order to circumvent the utter political embarrassment of criminal prosecutions, the Review - a review not into the LCP but into its operation - became a review into the operation of Version 12 LCP. The Review recommended the withdrawal of the LCP. What has happened?

Mr. Lamb got his wish reported in The Telegraph and...

Further reading -

Liverpool Care Pathway - "A Devil In Disguise..." 

...the LCP underwent a name change.

And the NHSLA (NHS Litigation Authority) announced a new £400m 11 Firm panel of legal eagles to indemnify DoH organisations including CCGs and independent NHS providers.

The Measures

ELCQuA, the End of Life Care Quality Assessment Tool, is a traffic light yardstick to appraise establishment and enablement of EoLC measures. It is an incentive tool to 'get out of the red' and get those measures up and running.

This is NICE Quality Statement 1: Identification - ELCQuA –

People approaching end of life are identified in timely way. 

101: People approaching the end of life are identified in a timely way. (NICE Quality Statement 1)

Identification of people approaching the end of life may be initiated by either health or social care professionals in any setting. Professionals should discuss the benefits of being identified and the use of a register, EPaCCS or equivalent system with the person and their families and carers. Staff must, however, exercise judgement about when and whether to initiate discussions about end of life care. In treatment and care towards the end of life: good practice in decision making, the General Medical Council defines approaching the end of life as when a person is likely to die within the next 12 months. This time frame provides a guide as to when people might be identified as approaching the end of life. For some conditions, the trajectory may require identification and subsequent planning to happen earlier. For other conditions, it may not be possible to identify people until nearer the time of death. Identification should take place with sufficient time to enable provision of high-quality end of life planning, care and support in accordance with the person's needs and preferences. Identification will need to be considered on an individual basis. Examples of available tools for assisting clinicians with timely identification of people approaching the end of life, include: 

• Gold Standards Framework prognostic indicator guidance 

• Supportive and Palliative Care Indicator tool from NHS Scotland;

• Quick guide to identifying patients for supportive and palliative care from Macmillan Cancer Support.

The Panels

Ezekiel Emanuel, one-time adviser on health policy in the Obama White House, stood accused of being a ‘Deadly Doctor’. There were charges of ‘Death Panels’, even an American T4 Programme.

Accused of healthcare rationing by age and disability, Zeke rounded on these political pundits, insisting that he had been quoted out of context from an academic work.

Further reading –

Liverpool Care Pathway - A Utilitarian Pathway

However all that is or is not the case, Zeke has floated ideas and those ideas have become embedded in the collective psyche and have advanced an invidious trend.

Zeke has cultivated an environment for these ideas to thrive and come to pass. There are always consequences, always consequences.

Mr. Lamb knows the truth of it, as was reported in The Telegraph. According to Mr. Lamb, the elderly are bed-blockers who will be the ruin of the NHS.

He wants them signed up to EPPaCCS to accept downsized care so they are not admitted for treatment in the first place.

The truth of it is here -

- The Telegraph

Charities said the statistics reflect a “collapse” in the system of care for too many pensioners, who were being parcelled out of wards to save the NHS money, then given little care at home, placing them at risk of falls and infections. 

More than 50,000 patients a year are admitted to hospital after suffering a hip fracture - one of the most common and serious medical problems for the elderly.

The new research found that the number of cases who are discharged, then readmitted as an emergency within weeks after their health worsens, has risen from 3,658 in 2001/2 to 6,810 in 2010/11 - a rise of 69 per cent. 

The rise comes as NHS hospitals increasingly send patients home sooner, in an effort to cut costs.

The study found the average length of stay for hip fracture patients has fallen by almost five days over the past decade.

The truth of it is that the elderly require more care, not less. Better care means better outcomes.

Hospitals need to improve care for “high risk” patients, such as the very old or those undergoing dangerous procedures like emergency bowel repairs, who account for 80 per cent of deaths.

Doctors concede that there is simply not the money to provide such a level of care for all patients.

Research led by Dr. Rupert Pearse blames a “one-size fits all” approach that is “ingrained” in the NHS.

He warned: “We’ve always known that we had a problem, but this study shows it’s more serious than previously thought. It’s very worrying and we need to act.”

The whole point of 'care' is that it is provided to those who need it and, by definition, those who most need it. This is not happening.

Instead, those who most need care, their families and carers, are being engaged in discussions in EoLC.

Mr. Lamb called them bed-blockers.

A prominent and well-respected medical ethicist has gone further.

Baroness Warnock has said that elderly people suffering from dementia are “wasting people’s lives” and “wasting the resources of the National Health Service” and should be allowed to die. These are the words of a well-respected commentator on medical ethics.

Lady Warnock’s comments were published in an interview with the magazine of the Church of Scotland, Life and Work, and have been condemned by dementia charities.

Zeke has come out against euthanasia.

The very policies he has espoused and promoted by floating them in his 'academic' article, however, have actually championed what has become a cause célèbre in so-called 'assisted dying'.

Jacques Attali, is a leading French intellectual and former President of the European Bank for reconstruction and development.

He has said, "As soon as he goes beyond 60-65 years of age man lives beyond his capacity to produce, and he costs society a lot of money...euthanasia will be one of the essential instruments of our future societies."

Martin Amis

Martin Amis says euthanasia is 'an evolutionary inevitability'

Martin Amis says the 'primitive' Christian notion of the 'sanctity of life' is holding back debate on assisted suicide

Some further reading -

Liverpool Care Pathway - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly And The Diabolical

Question: Should the disabled ever desire death…?

The Complete Life 

Zeke Emanuel has had his musings published in The Atlantic.

In the article, Zeke argues that to become incapacitated is not a desirable state of affairs...

…living too long is also a loss. It renders many of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be worse than death but is nonetheless deprived. It robs us of our creativity and ability to contribute to work, society, the world. It transforms how people experience us, relate to us, and, most important, remember us. We are no longer remembered as vibrant and engaged but as feeble, ineffectual, even pathetic.

This is it, Zeke, you are saying it. You are saying that disability is not a desirable condition to experience; disability is a condition in which it may actually be desirable to desire death.

The article is actually an argument for and a vindication of his Complete Lives system as discussed in his 'academic' article. Zeke even includes a graph - a rip-off of his Complete Lives graph – which purports to demonstrate a theory of social usefulness which coincides with the prioritisation of medical intervention which the authors of the Communitarian world view favour.

Zeke says, quite blatently:

How do we want to be remembered by our children and grandchildren? We wish our children to remember us in our prime. Active, vigorous, engaged, animated, astute, enthusiastic, funny, warm, loving. Not stooped and sluggish, forgetful and repetitive, constantly asking “What did she say?” We want to be remembered as independent, not experienced as burdens. 

At age 75 we reach that unique, albeit somewhat arbitrarily chosen, moment when we have lived a rich and complete life, and have hopefully imparted the right memories to our children.

This is pure Complete Lives, plain and simple.

Zeke has argued against euthanasia and assisted suicide, but

I have long argued that we should focus on giving all terminally ill people a good, compassionate death—not euthanasia or assisted suicide for a tiny minority.

By definition, old age is a terminal condition. Zeke has defined its onset in a statement of limitations:

I am talking about how long I want to live and the kind and amount of health care I will consent to after 75.

Zeke is talking about information standard EPaCCS, EoL preferences, rapid-discharge home-to-die pathways, signing up to death lists and ACPs.

Americans may live longer than their parents, but they are likely to be more incapacitated. Does that sound very desirable? Not to me.

Unequivocally, Zeke is saying that it is not a desirable outcome of old age to become incapacitated. Well, of course, it isn’t but Zeke is making a 'quality of life' judgement. This is an attack on disability.

The disabled still want their lives; they don't want a quality of life assumption made that they are better off dead.

The Plain Truth

The implication of what is being propounded here is clear and simple: it is healthcare rationing by age and disability!

This from the Local Government Information Unit -

Councils, with their new convening powers through the Health and Wellbeing Boards, are ideally placed to bring together health, social care and housing. Our report therefore calls for councils to take ownership of the end of life care agenda in order to enable people to spend their final days in dignity.

They will be using ELQuA -

- ELCQuA

And with a helping hand to help all this along with a £1m handout from the National Lottery Fund is pro-euthanasia 'charity' Compassion in Dying, which is now well and truly embedded in Age UK...

- Compassion in Dying

"I was delighted to meet the Project Co-ordinators from the other Age UKs at our first training event at Compassion in Dying’s headquarters in London last week. It was very encouraging to meet all the project staff in person, share ideas and to learn so much more about what we will be achieving through My Life My Decision. It’s such an exciting journey to be part of right from the beginning."

The groomers are being groomed at ‘training events’ in the CID HQ.

CID is a “separate legal entity” to DID, but they're still in cahoots...

This is Danielle Hamm, Director of this dodgy euthanasia charity that has hoodwinked Age UK into letting them share their toilet facilities, blogging on Dignity in Dying –

It is truly amazing what good marketing can achieve.

Pertinent reading –

Liverpool Care Pathway – Fur Das Wohl Des Staates

Liverpool Care Pathway - The Communitarian Nudge

Liverpool Care Pathway – The Grand Plan

Liverpool Care Pathway - It's Not the Crisis, It's What You Do With The Crisis

Liverpool Care Pathway - The Dust Has Settled. All Change! Nothing's Changed.

Liverpool Care Pathway - Murder On The NHS Express

Liverpool Care Pathway - The Communitarian Health Service Has Arrived