Liverpool Care Pathway: minister orders independent review

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/nov/26/liverpool-care-pathway-review-pledge

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The government has pledged to set up an independent review of the Liverpool Care Pathway for dying patients, after allegations from opponents that elderly people have been put on the palliative care regime without their consent or their families' knowledge.

Norman Lamb, the minister of state for care services, made the announcement after meeting medical experts and critics of the LCP. The pathway is intended to help terminally-ill patients into a calm, comfortable death in the place of their choosing. There have been claims that elderly patients have been refused food and water to speed up death and that neither they, nor relatives have been told doctors consider their case to be terminal. Hospitals are said to have received extra local incentive payments for increasing the number of patients on the pathway.

"It is clear that everyone wants their loved ones' final hours of life to be as pain free and dignified as possible, and the Liverpool Care Pathway is an important part of achieving this aim. However, as we have seen, there have been too many cases where patients were put on the pathway without a proper explanation or their families being involved. This is simply unacceptable," said Lamb, a Liberal Democrat, in a statement.

"Today I have committed to appoint an independent chair to review how end of life care is working and oversee the reviews into the LCP. This will report back to me in the new year. This review will also consider the value of locally set incentives, and whether they are leading to bad decisions or practice."

He said it was "vitally important that everyone can be confident in the findings of this work – and that we learn lessons where they are needed, so we can ensure that end of life care is as good as it can be."

The independent chair, who has yet to be appointed, will oversee three separate reviews that have already begun – by the Association of Palliative Medicine, by Dying Matters and by the NHS end of life care team.