Dying patient scheme should be examined, campaigners warn

Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | September 4, 2009 | Kate Devlin

[Schnucki]

Campaigners have called for an investigations into an NHS scheme which helps to end the lives of terminally patients after a group of leading doctors warned that some were dying prematurely.

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph the medical experts warned that Britain was facing a “national crisis in care” because some patients were having fluids and drugs removed after being wrongly judged to be close to death.

Many were also being sedated, making it more difficult for doctors to tell their true condition.

The experts warned that the scheme was encouraging a "tick box" culture in which healthcare staff stopped questioning whether a patient was really dying or not.

The scheme, called the Liverpool Care Pathway, is being used in more than 300 hospitals across the country to advise staff on how to deal with the dying.

Dignity in Dying, which campaigns for patients to have a choice in all aspects of their end of life care and death, called on ministers and the health service to investigate how the system was being used in practice.

Sarah Wootton, the chief executive of the group, formerly the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, said: “Further research on the practice of the Liverpool Care Pathway is needed.

"The concerns raised ... suggest that some health care professionals need further training in the care of dying patients and on communication with both patients at the end of life, and their families and loved ones."

She added: "People approaching the end of life need to feel confident that their wishes will be respected and that they will be given the best care possible.

“All efforts to improve the care and support available to dying patients should be welcomed - including programmes such as the Liverpool Care Pathway, which aims to bring the best practice of

[Still Thinking]

Nice!