A long-standing critic of the Liverpool Care Pathway for dying patients says she is pleased it is being abolished.
The controversial ‘tick-box’ care regime for terminally-ill patients is to be suspended in the island - after an independent review concluded it should be phased out in England.
The UK government-commissioned review, led by Lady Julia Neuberger, heard harrowing stories from families who had not been told loved ones were expected to die and of cases where patients were denied fluids.
In a joint statement, Hospice Isle of Man and the Department of Health insisted there was no evidence that the Pathway had ever been used inappropriately in the Isle of Man but they acknowledged that in some hospitals in the UK some staff misunderstood and misused the tool.
Liberal Vannin MHK Kate Beecroft (Douglas South) said the move to suspend LCP was ‘very welcome’.
She said the concerns all along were not specifically about LCP - but whether it was appropriate for Noble’s to use for patients deemed to be ‘probably’ dying.
Mrs Beecroft said: ‘In the past I have received complaints about the use of LCP in the hospital but nobody ever complained about its use in hospice. The main complaints were that people had not been informed - there was a lack of communication.’
She welcomed the move towards more individualised care plans.
‘No two individuals are the same. End of life care needs a more measured approach,’ she said.
‘More Care, Less Pathway: A review of the Liverpool Care Pathway’ found that in the right hands, LCP did support people to experience quality compassionate care in the last hours and days of their life – but if implemented by those who didn’t understand it or are not trained in its use, it can be incorrectly used.
Lady Neuberger said: ‘Caring for the dying must never again be practised as a tick-box exercise, and each patient must be cared for according to their individual needs and preferences.’
It recommended the end of life care tool is phased out in the UK over the next six months to one year.
Hospice chief executive Margaret Simpson said that following the suspension of the LCP tick-box paperwork, staff would be supported to devise personal care plans based on the hospice model of care.