The LACDP

Following the review of the Liverpool Care Pathway we have this:

The Leadership Alliance (constituents listed at the end of this statement) has issued an update to its work on Care of Dying People (LACDP) following the report of the independent panel on the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP). The LACDP is a coalition of the national organisations to which the panel addressed its recommendations, joined by charities with a strong interest in care for dying people.

The words in bold are the first that jumped out at me. We are referring to the care of very sick people - so sick, they are dying - so why is the panel joined by charities?  It would be more reassuring to know that the panel were joined by senior doctors.

LACDP members are committed not only to taking forward the panel’s recommendations, but also to implementing a consistent approach to caring for dying people across England, to ensure that everyone who is in the last days and hours of life, and their families, receive high quality care, tailored to their needs and wishes and delivered with compassion and competence.

What are they saying here? They are committed to implementing a consistent approach. What, in place of an inconsistent approach? Does this really require saying?  High quality care? What, in place of low quality care? More rubbish. So what is high quality care for the dying? Tell us. Tailored to their needs and wishes? What kind of needs and wishes is a dying person supposed to have then? There`s an awful reluctance to come out and say anything, isn`t there? This is waffle.

The alliance believes that the starting point for ensuring excellent care for everyone in the last days and hours of life should be a common understanding, between professionals, dying people and their families and between professionals themselves, about what such care should look like. The alliance aspires to a shared vision for care and is currently engaging with families, and professionals and organisations on draft outcomes and guiding principles, which would help create that shared vision.

I would have thought the starting point should be attending to the patient. But No. The starting point should be a common understanding between professionals, the dying and their families. Common understanding of what? Oh, about what excellent care should look like? You mean you don`t have that shared vision? But you are confident about getting it and drafting the outcomes and guiding principles anyway. The obfuscation and arrogance here is frightening.

The alliance recognises the continuing challenges faced by those caring for dying people, including following the review panel’s report. We understand that professionals are looking for further guidance and direction..

Patients did not fare well with the last lot of guidance and direction did they? But let`s brush that aside.

The independent review panel concluded that many of the issues around the LCP were that it had come to be regarded and used as a generic protocol – and sometimes as a tick box exercise - which is the wrong approach.

A tick box approach is the wrong approach. Yes indeed. I would have thought the right approach to the care of the dying would occur around the bedside not in the office.

The alliance will not produce a replacement for the LCP. Instead, we want to see the way in which a dying person is cared for, including the goals and other key aspects of their care, focused around the individual, in line with their needs and preferences; and developed and delivered in consultation with them, wherever possible and/or their family, and in line with the final version of the outcomes and guiding principles.

They want the goals and other key aspects of their care to be focused around the individual. Do these people know how ridiculous they sound? Why shouldn`t care of the individual focus on the individual?
 
That`s the problem when you try to hide the true intentions of what you are doing with your outcomes and guiding principles. It does not come across as sensible, never mind convincing.

The Leadership Alliance for the Care of Dying People is comprised of: Care Quality Commission (CQC); College of Healthcare Chaplains (CHCC); Department of Health (DH); General Medical Council (GMC); General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC); Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC); Health Education England (HEE); Macmillan Cancer Support (also representing the Richmond Group of Charities); Marie Curie Cancer Care (also representing Help the Hospices and the National Council for Palliative Care); Monitor; National Institute for Health Research (NIHR); NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence); NHS England; NHS Trust Development Authority (NTDA); NHS Improving Quality (NHS IQ); Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC); Public Health England (PHE); Royal College of GPs; Royal College of Nursing (RCN); Royal College of Physicians (RCP); and Sue Ryder (also representing the National Care Forum and the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group).


http://www.bgs.org.uk/index.php/readingsubjectlist/155-eolc/2703-care-of-dying-leadership