{"id":6231,"date":"2013-07-15T09:39:24","date_gmt":"2013-07-15T08:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=6231"},"modified":"2025-06-27T11:10:26","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T10:10:26","slug":"2013jul15lcp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/2013jul15lcp\/","title":{"rendered":"End of the Road for Pathway of Death?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Marie<\/a>
Marie Curie claim to be ‘devoted to life’ yet they helped develop the ‘Liverpool Care Pathway’ devoted to death.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The much-criticised Liverpool Care Pathway looks to have \u00a0come to the end of the road.<\/p>\n

An independent committee has recommended its closure in a report to the Government published today<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The government has ordered hospitals to carry out immediate reviews of their practices and announced that the Liverpool Care Pathway will be phased out<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Developed by Royal Liverpool University Hospital and\u00a0the Marie Curie cancer charity, the Liverpool Care pathway involves the withdrawal of medication, food and fluids. \u00a0Patients are sedated, starved and dehydrated to death.<\/p>\n

Its defenders say the LCP offers people a peaceful, pain-free death. \u00a0But it is only pain-free because of the sedation. \u00a0Dehydration and starvation are normally painful.<\/p>\n

The critics accuse doctors of using the LCP to hasten death and free up beds. \u00a0Although the Pathway was supposed to be used only in cases where recovery was not possible, elderly patients suffering from non-terminal illnesses have found themselves at risk from doctors illegally practising euthanasia.<\/p>\n

NHS Trusts receive payouts for hitting targets related to its use. \u00a0\u00a0Needless to say,\u00a0the Department of Health vigorously denied\u00a0suggestions that the Pathway has been used for cynical or economic reasons, but ministers have now accepted it is to go.<\/p>\n

Christian Voice has been highlighting the Liverpool Care Pathway, and Marie Curie’s involvement with it, even since it was developed in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n

Reports have suggested that doctors have been establishing \u201cdeath lists\u201d of patients to be put on the pathway. There have also been suggestions that hospitals might be employing the method to cut costs and save bed spaces. \u00a0Reacting to the news, one\u00a0doctor immediately said his NHS Trusts will need more money if the Pathway is phased out.<\/p>\n

MP Fiona Bruce told how\u00a0she saved her father from the LCP<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0after her mother endured an agonising death under it.<\/p>\n

Elderly patients simply needing antibiotic treatment for pneumonia or recovering from cancer have been put on the LCP. \u00a0Many relatives\u00a0have said they were never consulted<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0before the procedure was started. \u00a0Others have said that to call it a ‘care’ pathway was wrong when its only possible outcome would be the death of the patient, usually in less than two weeks.<\/p>\n

One son said that the treatment of his parents, 89 and 90, was ‘grotesque’ and claimed that his parents were\u00a0put on the pathway to death without consultation<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0He expressed surprise and horror, as most people would, that ‘they were given sedatives and had vital food and fluids withdrawn’, which is the defining characteristic of the LCP.<\/p>\n

The review, under the chairmanship of Julia Baroness Neuberger, said the controversial end-of-life care regime was used \u201cas an excuse for poor-quality care\u201d and found that while the LCP can offer \u201chigh-quality and compassionate care\u201d, there were \u201ctoo many cases\u201d where it was \u201cincorrectly implemented\u201d. \u00a0The review concluded that the regime should be phased out over the next six to twelve months and be replaced with a personalised end-of-life care plan for each individual patient.<\/p>\n

The relatives of elderly patients\u00a0will have to be vigilant lest a new regime repeats the brutality of the old.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Find out how to join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings (clicking on the link below does not commit you to join)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Please note that persons wishing to comment on this story must enter a valid email address. Comments from persons leaving fictitious email addresses will be trashed.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The much-criticised Liverpool Care Pathway looks to have \u00a0come to the end of the road. An independent committee has recommended its closure in a report to the Government published today. The government has ordered hospitals to carry out immediate reviews of their practices and announced that the Liverpool Care Pathway will be phased out. Developed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,184],"tags":[887],"class_list":["post-6231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion-euthanasia","category-uk-christian-constitution","tag-liverpool-care-pathway"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Stephen","author_link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/author\/stephen\/"},"rttpg_comment":24,"rttpg_category":"Abortion & Euthanasia<\/a> UK Christian Constitution<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"The much-criticised Liverpool Care Pathway looks to have \u00a0come to the end of the road. An independent committee has recommended its closure in a report to the Government published today. The government has ordered hospitals to carry out immediate reviews of their practices and announced that the Liverpool Care Pathway will be phased out. Developed…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34957,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6231\/revisions\/34957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}