Wednesday 13 March 2013

Liverpool Care Pathway - A Self-Serving Programme

This is The Big Questions -


Jackie Leotardi - 

Yes. One hospital was paid £308,000 for reaching targets for putting people on what is basically a euthanasia programme. Baroness, it is euthanasia.

Baroness Finlay -

It… No, euthanasia is about intent. The Liverpool Care Pathway doesn’t intend to kill people. It intends to improve the care when people are inevitably dying. That’s quite different.


Baroness Finlay was horrified at the suggestion. The Baroness should wake up to the real world. Let us grant that the look of horror that crossed her face at the suggestion was a genuine reaction...

My Lady, Baroness, as do all programmes, the programme that was intentioned to serve individual need is become self-serving!

This is Caron Cares -

If this lady is talking about the Liverpool Care Pathway in the context of what she is talking about, then she is actually talking about euthanasia. Does she truly know not what she says...?


Caron Cares

The Liverpool Pathway

by CARON on MARCH 8, 2013 
English: NHS logo
What exactly is the “Liverpool Pathway”  and why is it under scrutiny from both the medical profession and the press ?.
I had not heard of the Liverpool Pathway until one of my clients referred to it as the Liverpool Line when his wife was placed on it.  
No one likes to talk about death, but the more it is discussed then perhaps we will feel less awkward about it!
Remember the days no-one used to talk about sex ?
What exactly is the “Liverpool Pathway”  and why is it under scrutiny from both the medical profession and the press.
The content below came from the Telegraph Online and relates to a Senior Neurologists concerns about the “treatment” following one patient being removed from it and living a further 14 months.
The intervention from Prof Patrick Pullicino comes amid mounting concerns over the approach, which can involve the withdrawal of drugs, fluids and food, and the administration of powerful pain relief to patients who are believed to be dying.
An independent review of the pathway, and of six-figure payments which have made to NHS hospitals for meeting targets to place people on it, is now under way after it was ordered by ministers.
Prof Pullicino, consultant neurologist at East Kent Hospitals University foundation trust, said the system was open to “terrific abuse” because doctors had no objective way of forecasting death, and often hastened it, by stopping treatment and sustenance.
I have to admit I was against the Liverpool Pathway initially but watched “Dispatches” on Channel 4 on 4/3/13 and have to admit it has totally changed my attitude. I have always felt that animals had a more dignified end with owners able to put pets down and relieve pain and suffering. I am not suggesting that doctors are putting patients down, but to prolong a painful and lingering death – can that be kind ?
I personally would welcome a shortened death and one without pain.
This is a controversial subject and I would love to know what YOU think.

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