27.11.12
Pathway of death?
The controversial Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) is to undergo a new review, care minister Norman Lamb has announced.
The pathway aims to improve quality of life for patients dying in hospital, removing medical interventions which can no longer do any good.
There have been failings in its implementation identified, picked up by the press and used to castigate the entire pathway as, seemingly, a way for callous healthcare organisations to bump people off and grab financial incentives associated with the scheme.
The pathway was designed to ensure a better death – not a less costly one. If true, these reports are very serious indeed and Lamb is right to investigate such claims swiftly and independently. But it is about the implementation of the pathway’s recommendations, not its primary provisions or principles, which remain sound.
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