Families have slammed the NHS for putting “do not resuscitate” orders on disabled patients without their permission.
An investigation by ITV News discovered that numerous UK hospitals have put blanket ‘Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation’ (DNR) orders on at least 12 patients with learning disabilities after being ordered to cease the practice five years ago.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said the blanket imposition of DNRs on disabled people had caused potentially avoidable deaths in a report published in 2020.
NHS guidelines require medical officials to conduct assessments on a case-by-case basis before issuing a DNR and to consult either the person concerned or their family members. But Julie Benson, whose sister Caroline has cerebral palsy, epilepsy and is non-verbal, said she has been told 15 to 20 times that a DNR was added to her sister’s form and has had to “fight” on multiple occasions to have it removed.
“I get a phone call [saying] Caroline is in hospital from the care home, to be greeted by: ‘We are not going to be able to resuscitate her’,” Julie told ITV.
“Every time she goes into hospital, Caroline will have a ‘do not resuscitate’ in place. That is not my wish. They want me to agree to it. I very rarely do.”
“This is all before anyone has even explained to me what is wrong with Caroline,” she added. “So they don’t say to me, ‘This is a life-threatening situation’. It’s not. It’s a chest infection. They wouldn’t do that to me or you.
“I honestly don’t think they think she is worth that effort, that she can’t have a good quality of life. Caroline has a good life. We go to the park, we go to the beach. Every year, Caroline and I go to Tenerife for two weeks.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he was “appalled” to hear that hospitals were continuing to apply DNRs on disabled patients without consent.
“One of the things I’ll be doing off the back of [these] findings is talking to NHS leaders about how we make sure there is individual accountability and consequences,” he said.
“People that are learning disabled have the same rights, the same choices, the same dignity as everyone else. And their lives are of equal value and worth, and I find it honestly utterly repulsive that someone who has a learning disability are written off in this way and certainly without consultation with that person or indeed the people who love and care for them.”
The Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) was introduced in the late 1990s, starting in 1997, as a set of guidelines for end-of-life care.
It was created to standardise and enhance palliative care for terminally ill patients in their last hours or days of life at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and the nearby Marie Curie hospice.
Supposedly, the Liverpool Care Pathway is no longer in use; it was phased out in 2014 following controversy and was replaced by individualised end-of-life care plans.
The Liverpool Care Pathway was a scandal that generated a lot of controversy due to unfavourable media coverage and public concerns.
The scandal centred on the accusation that patients were sometimes put on the pathway without their family’s consent, and that sustaining treatments like food and water were being removed far too rapidly.
Critics dubbed it the “road to death” and accused the NHS of killing off thousands of elderly patients. Supporters say it helped their relatives have a peaceful and dignified death.
It was straightforward euthanasia, and it continues now, albeit in a different way.
DNRs have to be given by permission. Either by the patient or a family member who is in sound mind and body.
Any doctor or nurse who shortens a person’s life is just a monster and should not be permitted to work in that occupation or care home.
It’s different if that person would no longer have any quality of life or who likely would not recover, or if they do have a DNR, but other than that, it’s the doctor’s and nurses’ duty to endeavour to save that person, whatever the cost.
If a patient has family to support them and say ‘no’ to this evil practice, then they can speak for the patient, but if the patient doesn’t have anybody to advocate for them, they will most certainly be allowed to die; this is what they call ‘euthanasia by default.’
This is tantamount to manslaughter, and it’s totally disgusting.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 