Did he get on the "Liverpool Pathway"....a quick trip from ward to morgue.
The discredited Liverpool Care Pathway is still being used in some hospitals despite having been scrapped, a Commons report will reveal.
A cancer charity warns that despite an NHS ban, the controversial end-of-life programme is still in use under 'a different name'.
The report comes as police are investigating the death of a second 'healthy' pensioner at a hospital in Cheshire. The family of Margaret Smart, 93, lodged a formal complaint against Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, saying they were convinced the mother of 12 died after being dehydrated.
A new report has warned that hospitals are still using the discredited treatment method, file photograph
Nurses told MPs that some hospitals have merely 'tweaked' the end-of-life protocol and given it another title – meaning the 'abuse' suffered by some frail and vulnerable patients under the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) may still be happening.
The Royal College of Nursing said its members had 'not seen a significant difference' in the way care is delivered in England since the pathway was withdrawn last year.
The LCP involves the withdrawal of life-saving treatment. Patients are sedated and most are denied food and fluids. They typically die within 29 hours.
Critics said it was a way of hastening death, and – following pressure from the Daily Mail – it was phased out following the Neuberger review two years ago, which found some patients were so dehydrated they were forced to suck on hospital sponges.