Elderly and vulnerable people are still being put on an end-of-life ‘death pathway’, despite the fact that it was officially abolished almost a decade ago, a report will claim this week.
The controversial Liverpool Care Pathway – a series of guidelines that can involve the withdrawal of life-saving treatment from dying patients – was banned in 2014 after reports that people were put on it who might otherwise have survived.
But a report commissioned by MPs and peers, to be published on Tuesday, will conclude the LCP is still being practised ‘in all but name’.
The report details 16 cases where patients died after being given LCP-style treatment. The youngest was just 21.
One of the report’s authors, retired palliative care consultant Professor Sam Ahmedzai, last night said he was ‘shocked’ to hear how they had been treated ‘at the hands of those who should have known better’.
Under the ‘LCP’, patients were sometimes placed on the pathway too soon. They were then given large doses of sedatives and painkillers – ostensibly to ease their pain – and often denied nutrition and hydration. Severely weakened, death became all but inevitable.
The report details 16 cases where patients died after being given LCP-style treatment. The youngest was just 21.
One of the report’s authors, retired palliative care consultant Professor Sam Ahmedzai, last night said he was ‘shocked’ to hear how they had been treated ‘at the hands of those who should have known better’.
Under the ‘LCP’, patients were sometimes placed on the pathway too soon. They were then given large doses of sedatives and painkillers – ostensibly to ease their pain – and often denied nutrition and hydration. Severely weakened, death became all but inevitable.
Despite it being stopped, Prof Ahmedzai found LCP-style treatments ‘persist to this day’.
The 16 suffered from medics implementing a ‘one-size fits all, tick-box approach’, he wrote, adding: ‘Thus in many of our case studies, patients … were experiencing an end-of-life care pathway which was similar to the LCP in all but name.’
In 10 cases relatives challenged doctors about whether the LCP was being applied but ‘this was met with denial,’ said Prof Ahmedzai.
Some patients were subjected to ‘indefensible end-of-life decisions’ made ‘unilaterally’ by doctors.
Laura Jane Booth, 21, who had the genetic disorder Patau’s syndrome, died in October 2016, after going into hospital for an eye operation.
Her parents said: ‘She had no nutrition for the entire three-and-a-half weeks she was in.’
Even during three days in intensive care, ‘still nobody did anything about Laura not feeding’.
When she died, they still thought she was in hospital for routine surgery. ‘Nobody ever told us that she was on an end-of-life care pathway.’
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