Contradictory messages

 

According to NHS Lanarkshire the Liverpool Care Pathway is "a document which should be used to facilitate best practice and improve care of the dying patient. Adapted from the hospice model of care the LCP is a holistic, multidisciplinary and evidence based tool which focuses on the physical, psychological and spiritual needs of the dying patient (and their families) in the last few days of life.  The LCP allows health care practitioners to identify the dying phase and initiates appropriate comfort measures required at this phase of a person’s life. The LCP is a legal document, replacing all other documentation at this time. It aims to standardise and improve end of life care throughout Lanarkshire."

 

So the LCP we are told is a legal document which allows practitioners to identify the `dying phase`? Never mind that identifying the `dying phase` is not an exact science and doctors are not always able to diagnose dying - this legal document can do it. Then we can suppose that health professionals can rush in with their `anticipatory` comfort syringes thus ensuring that death results.
http://www.nhslanarkshire.org.uk/Services/PalliativeCare/Pages/Palliativecareliverpoolcarepathway.aspx

There is an update on the same website: 18 December 2013

Press reports and feedback from families indicated that not everyone was getting the high quality care that the public has a right to expect.

In July 2013 the findings from an independent review, led by Baroness Neuberger, into the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) were published. The report highlighted failings in the implementation of the LCP and recommended that the Government replaces it with individual care plans over the following 12 months.

More Care, Less Pathway: A review of the Liverpool Care Path found that although when used well, by well-trained staff, the LCP did enable people to have a comfortable and dignified death, too often it was used inappropriately, by poorly trained staff, resulting in a breakdown in communication and poor end of life experience for not just the patient but also those close to them and their carers...

Isn`t it about time that NHS Lanarkshire stopped singing the praises of the Liverpool Care Pathway and removed the first post from their website?  Find out more about the Leadership Alliance for the Care of Dying People