Clinicians Hasten Death of even Non-Terminal Patients

The Liverpool Care Pathway is an integrated care pathway that is used at the bedside to improve the quality of the dying in the last hours and days of life.  It is a means to transfer the best quality for care of the dying from the hospice movement into other clinical areas, so that wherever the person is dying there can be an equitable model of care.




But Professor Patrick Pullicino charges that the clinicians use the pathway even when there is a lack of clear evidence for initiating it.  Dr. Pullicino told the Royal Society of Medicine: "Very likely many elderly patients who could live substantially longer are being killed by the LCP. Patients are frequently put on the pathway without a proper analysis of their condition."  




The Department of Health responded: "A patient's condition is monitored at least every four hours and if a patient improves, they are taken off the Liverpool Care Pathway and given whatever treatments best suit their new needs."