Liverpool Care Pathway - No Justice For May?

Still back-peddling on the spin bikes...







In a press release published on dot Gov last year, they said -

When the Review was published last year, the Minister for Care and Support announced that people who have a complaint – even where a complaint had already been pursued – about the care given to a dying patient on the Liverpool Care Pathway should have access to an independent assessment of their case should they want it. That message is reinforced today.

In just a year, a lot can change...

Now they say –

Thank you for your further correspondence of 12 October about the Liverpool Care Pathway. 1 have been asked to reply.

I note your continuing concerns and I appreciate that you wish to arrange an independent assessment of your case. However, as Ms           explained in her reply of 9 October, under arrangements made with the Association of Palliative Medicine (APM), an independent assessment is considered as part of the NHS complaints procedure. You may therefore wish to raise your complaint again with the relevant NHS organisation in order for it to be considered by the APM.

I am sorry 1 cannot be more directly helpful.

So, what does anything that any Minister say really count for? What is it good for? Absolutely nothing...

The ‘NHS organisation’ merely reaffirmed their findings.

The MP was rebuffed in like fashion. He has challenged this...

They have responded by consulting their 'legal advisers'.

For ‘legal advisers’, read Solicitors, read NHS Litigation Authority.

This is Legal Business –

DAC Beachcroft, Kennedys, Hill Dickinson, Browne Jacobson and Weightmans are among 14 firms to have won places on the NHS Litigation Authority's (NHSLA) expanded services legal panel, with a total legal spend of around £400m over four years.

That’s £400m of taxpayer’s money – the people’s money - set aside to fight the people.

High time the Barons once more took all the King’s Ministers and all the King's men to task to reassert their Great Charter!

Justice is sought and Justice is deserved
But Justice is bought and justice is not served.

Those solicitors who speak honestly will say that May's life was worthless. To pursue a case for damages, the best you may hope for is compensation in recompense for funeral expenses.

To pursue a case for justice, you will be up against a medical establishment able to call on the full resources of the NHSLA to fund their defense and to summon all and sundry medical witnesses to speak in their cause.

But this is not about compensation; this is about bringing people to account.

Neuberger is reported to have said:

Our review exposed some distressing instances of lack of high quality care and we are indebted to those members of the public, as well as health and care staff, who told us about their experiences of the Liverpool Care Pathway.

- dot Gov

There was a lack of care full stop and those members of the public to which she refers had their evidence dismissed as anecdote...

Liverpool Care Pathway – All Waffle And Fudge

What awful, awful people.

Baroness Knight of Collingtree addressed Earl Howe:

Will my noble friend assure us that there will be an inquiry, which has been promised and announced in the press, and that it will be truly independent and not carried out by those who have vested interests? Nothing else will do.

And there was not -

Liverpool Care Pathway - The LCP Review: All Sewn Up!

I have seen wild creatures of the field act nobly to their kind.

True nobility is not bestowed by grant of title but by deed: the most lowly may truly be the gentleman; the most lauded by grant of title truly be the scoundrel.

Most significantly, in that press release published on dot Gov last year, they were still 'diagnosing' dying. It really was all just waffle and fudge.

Doctors will be legally obliged to seek patients' consent before placing them on end-of-life pathway under new law

Legal challenge: Patients not consulted on end-of-life care will be able to challenge their treatment in the courts under the new powers introduced in the Health and Social Care Act.

- Mail Online

Not if the patient is already dead...

Further reading -

Liverpool Care Pathway - Retracting Their Footsteps

Liverpool Care Pathway - Murder On The NHS Express

Pertinent reading -

Liverpool Care Pathway - A True Story

Liverpool Care Pathway - A True Story Supplemental

Liverpool Care Pathway - Responses Will Be Answered

Liverpool Care Pathway - A True Story: The Next Generation


Liverpool Care Pathway - Jane's Story