Liverpool Pathway. Nottingham woman with a urinary tract infection.


Recommended Posts

This is a warning all we old codgers must take. Based on an article from today`s Evening Post.

I watched a TV programme last week which contained footage of the type of people considered worthless and therefore to be exterminated by the state (Germany in the 30`s) If the article above is to be believed this woman had a urinary tract infection ,-surely not a reason to kill a British person ? This lady has probably had a worthwhile ,useful and productive life, ,but to be `put down' like a dog?

Dr Stephen Fowlie, Medical Director at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "We have apologised to Mr Dunn for the breakdown in communication in his wife's care.

What communication Fowlie?

Husband Stuart Dunn, 68, rushed to hospital after hearing of his wife's illness, and says he only became aware she had been put on the end-of-life plan when he overheard nurses talking about it. !

Well we must prepare beds for the 100`s of thousands flooding into UK who have never contributed a penny to the state.

I cannot comprehend that a caring nation like ours has reached such depravity as exterminating its own citizens.

Top doctor's chilling claim: The NHS kills off 130,000 elderly patients every year

Worrying claim: Professor Patrick Pullicino said doctors had turned the use of a controversial 'death pathway' into the equivalent of euthanasia of the elderly

Professor Pullicino claimed that far too often elderly patients who could live longer are placed on the LCP and it had now become an assisted death pathway rather than a care pathway.

He cited pressure on beds and difficulty with nursing confused or difficult-to-manage elderly patients as factors

Link to post
Share on other sites

I have suspicions that my father's death in a Los Angeles Hospital, in 2008 was a similar situation.

That and driven by the motives of a relative who was managing his financial affairs, and went on to steal his final bank balance of

$10,000!

Link to post
Share on other sites

shocking,i have just been reading this article in the evening post,be warned always make sure your relatives male sure you are safe in hospital,and they give you food and drink if necessary,who would have believed we would even be discussing this topic

Link to post
Share on other sites

I was not shocked to read this article, disturbed,yes.

Just a matter of time before this was to happen. The corporate world cannot see the elderly or the infirm as being of any use to them, exept maybe for healthy body parts or as guinea pigs.

Lets face it, hospitals are now part of that corporate world we live in.

Link to post
Share on other sites

My Dad passed away in QMC on Saturday. He was 91 and had a fall 11 days previous. I cannot praise the doctors and nursing staff enough for the care they gave to my Dad. He had several scans to try to determine why he wasn't improving and eventually the doctor decided he had a chest infection and he was given IV antibiotics as he was not able to swallow very well. He was still being given the antibiotics when he died. The doctor asked us if we would like Dad to be fed through a tube. We said we didn't want that. As far as my family is concerned, the NHS is brilliant and it must be realised that it is only the cases that go badly wrong that reach the press. There are thousands of patients admitted to our hospitals every year who are discharged again fighting fit.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I too offer my sympathy,LizzyM.In view of your very recent loss I will not put any arguments against at present. I do wonder though with all the uproar that was raging around this time how greatly the QMC would have been on guard at this time. I will publish the facts around my uncles treatment at QMC at a later date.

It is interesting to note that the government have JUST withdrawn the huge incentives paid to hospitals to put patients on the Liverpool pathway.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I was at the QMC last week with a suspected broken finger.

They treated me very well apart from losing the x-rays.

A student was allowed to x-ray me without any supervision.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Lizzie, my condolences on your loss and I do hope that at his good age you have lots of good memories to keep him close in your hearts.

I regret that Mother in Laws stays at Derby RI did not inspire us with any confidence, although I am a great admirer of the NHS ethos in general. She was in a Home for the last 4 years of her life suffering with vascular dementia, and passed away very suddenly with a UTI and neither the Home nor the NHS system covered themselves in glory, they seemed more concerned that we gave them the authority "not to recussitate" than to actually attend to her condition.

Link to post
Share on other sites

The saga continues!To an apologist for the NUH cause (see todays `Post')

Crosby such a pity a dedicated palliative care doctor has been `wheeled out ' for a matter which needs addressing at the highest administrative level. When was the last time you were allowed to peruse the N U H `s detailed accounts at the most secret level?

It varies from another NHS scheme which extends across all hospitals in Britain where money is withheld for high mortality rates rather than awarded for improving rates.

Another researcher, Professor Ruth McDonald of Nottingham University, added: 'Pay-for-performance schemes are being widely adopted, yet until now there’s been little evidence that they improve patient outcomesThe Liverpool Care Pathway is all about affordable healthcare and "how best to apportion care in the circumstance of a scarcity of care provision with 'both procedural and substantive insights for developing a just allocation of health care resources' and the allocation of those scarce resources considered or not considered as basic."

It has taken much probing under FOI to discover the true costs and savings and rewards.

Tell me Crosby, how can depriving a patient of food and water and leaving them to suffer in soiled filthy beds?

"The Pathway is not itself a treatment, and it does not hasten or delay death. This approach helps us give our dying patients the best possible care."

Not from recent press reports at your and other trusts!

How can leaving patients to starve and to die of thirst not hasten death? Is this best possible care.

Methinks you should review your career path DOCTOR Crosby.

I will not discuss actual financial rewards for the LCP at this point in my argument.

Link to post
Share on other sites

People try to put us d-down (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
Just because we get around (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
I hope I die before I get old (Talkin' 'bout my generation)

This is my generation
This is my generation, baby

Link to post
Share on other sites

“Professor Irene Higginson, a palliative care specialist at Kings College, London, said today that good palliative care could extend life rather than shorten it. A US study had shown cancer patients lived two-and-a-half months longer with better quality of life and lower costs than those who received standard care.

Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, condemned the failure to consult as "utterly unacceptable."

The audit last year by the Royal College of Physicians and Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute in Liverpool of 178 hospitals found 44 per cent of patients who were conscious and a third of families were not consulted before the decision was taken.

An estimated 350,000 patients with chronic illnesses need palliative care each year but fewer than half (170,000) receive it, of whom 130,000 are placed on the pathway.

Norman Lamb, the Care minister, announced an independent review of the measure in November after an audit showed a significant number of patients and their families were unaware they were being put on the pathway.

Hospitals have received bonus payments related to the number of patients placed on the pathway, amounting to an estimated £30m minimum. The payments are intended to encourage good quality care, by ensuring patients are being looked after appropriately at the end of life and not being aggressively treated. The Department of Health insists the payments ensure dying patients are "treated with dignity" but the revelation of the payments has aroused fears they may provide a perverse incentive.”

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Currently around 70% of people want to die at home, yet more than half of the 450,000 people who die each year in England do so in hospital.

As well as improving patient care the scheme, it is said, would also save the NHS money as there would be fewer inappropriate emergency hospital admissions.

Typically towards the end of life, each unplanned admission to hospital costs more than £3,000. In the last 12 months before death, patients average 3.5 admissions each, with estimates that at any one time 20% of all hospital beds are occupied by people who are dying. If each person had one less crisis admission, the NHS would save £1,350,000,000 (NHS QIPP EOL workstream 2010).

So if instead of 3.5 admissions in the last 12 months we can limit admissions to 1 by putting people on the LCP this will save 2.5 admissions i.e. 3,375,000.000 pounds. plus 2.5 admissions at 3000 pounds not needed.

If we can add on (or subtract as the case may be) the incentive bonuses for actually putting people onto the LCP the figures are mind numbing.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I was going to avoid this topic, but my heart said go for it:

First of all I'm sorry LizzyM. I worked in a large hospital for ten years, 1980 to 1990....I saw them come and go and everything in between. I can tell you this - if you have an organ doner card, they just might let you die early in order to aquire your parts, rather than fighting to save your life, depending on your age of course, if your over 70 please beware. Be in control of yourself, ask questions, and go to no test unless they explain why you need it.

I was in transportation, so many times I would introduce myself to a patient in their room, and tell them where I was taking them. So many times they would tell me, "I already had that test" when I would ask, "this morning" ok fine I'd reply (I never argue with the patients - most times they're right on with information) I'll be right back and talk to your nurse.

My girlfriends mother had a series of strokes, we spent three to five years in a vicous circle. From her stroke, to the hospital, to rehab and then we took her home into our apartment. Two months later, another stroke and repeat process. Three times, four times always on a downward slide. My girlfriend Brigitte and I both worked full time jobs and have no regrets concerning her mothers care...we never left her alone to fend for herself...she was in a helpless condition.....in the end of all these strokes, her mother could no speak, swallow, or move anything on the right hand side of her body - and needless to say she was in attends / diapers - and needed around the clock help. The decision was nursing home or hire nurses. As I'm a home health care provider, I made the decision long ago that her mother would move in with us. I come from a family where I learned from my grand-mother that we take care of our own at home - with loved ones in charge. It was the right thing to do. I treated Brigitte's mother the same with respect.

During this time, we had to have her teeth pulled, and a feeding tube installed - I found a lump on her breast and had that removed....one event after another...everyday was a new adventure, but her mother and I learned to trust and love each other in the years that passed. I got her out of bed as often as possible and tried to give her as good quality of life as possible.

There are times when I didn't expect her to live until the morning, but she was a fighter, one tough German lady.

She ended up in the hospital, in fairly good condition, then got some fast spreading infection - spread like wildfire....that weakened her, but she again survived, but it took us months for her to bounce back again, it really took its toll on her mind and body.

The next trip to the hospital got worse....and everytine we'd take her there, their first question was, "how old is she" and that question determined what kind of care she would get - and just how much effort they would put in to her direct care. (little to none) This time It looked as if this would be the end of her, she kept going down hill, she wouldn't eat or drink and she kept getting weaker and weaker everyday. On top of this I found that she had a bed sore on the heal of her foot.

That night I had a dream, not so much visual but a message filled my head - that instructed me "if she's not dead, then she's living, if she's alive, then fight for her, as she can't fight for herself". as simple as that !

The next day I loaded her wheelchair into the car, stopped by Brigitte's place of work, and told her I was going to the hospital and to meet me there after work. Kind of like the Blues Brothers, I was on a mission from God.

Meaning no one was going to stop this 250 pound Bull-Moose on a mission of faith and hope.

I had no need to inform nurses of doctors - my intent was pure. To hell with them. Brigitte's mother was all alone in an empty room - not private - it was just her in there. I pulled up a chair and slowly told her about my dream. Sho doesn't speak English and my German is just as bad......but folks - words mean jack-crap-nothing - it's all in your tone and in the eyes and in your actions - with these things, you can do anything you want.

I explained to her exactly what I was going to do (it was a hail-Mary pass - a long shot at best) Frau Gast I said, you're not ready to die, I'm not ready to let you go, and so I'm going to get you out of bed and sit you in your wheelchair and when you get a little better I'm going to take you back home with me - as soon as possible - is that alright with you sweetheart!!! I slowly got her to sit up and hang her legs off the side of the bed for fifteen minutes - so as not to make her dizzy. I asked her if she was ready to sit in the chair and she looked at me, to say yes.....so we did it together....I made her comfortable as possible, I sat next to her and I had one arm around her shoulder and the other holding and stroking her hand....and her thumb was stroking mine in a thank you way.

In walked the nurse and some doctor - I suppose to read frau Gast her last rights LOL and here she was alive and well. I said nothing, and it's also a good thing that they didn't give me any resistance either. It took many weeks to get Brigitte's mother out of the hospital, and many months to get her back to living life again.

Her mother did pass away three days after her 84th birthday - in ICU painless and sleeping. Her suffering ended when the time was right - per god's plan. The end came in less than 24 hours after being admitted for the last time.

I offer no apology for this long babble of a rant here......I offer a message of hope and faith to someone out there, of that I'm sure.....look to God, and use your gut feelings in order to do the right thing, to keep a loved one alive or to let them go.

With Love From Dave

  • Upvote 5
Link to post
Share on other sites

Dave, that is so touching and you are such a loving caring man. I admire you for what you did for your girlfriend's mother and I have no doubt at all that she appreciated you both. She was evidently still relatively young when she started having strokes which is such a great shame. My father, on the other hand, was in his 92nd year and was ready to go and join my dear Mum who died of cancer 25 years ago. Dad was a very talented sportsman in his youth but when he retired from football and cricket he devoted all his time to Mum and us kids. When she was cruelly taken at age 64 and he was only 66 we didn't expect him to be able to live without her for long. He was fiercely independent but physically he was in a bad way, probably due to the sport he played in his younger days. He managed to stay in his own home right to the end, with the help of Zimmer frame, stairlift, etc. etc. but he was getting dementia too. We moved to Nottingham 9 years ago to take care of him and I visited him every day. He refused to have carers in the house, just me. It was very stressful and exhausting, particularly as he couldn't remember half the time that I'd been there. He had falls which sometimes caused cuts on his head, arms ......... Then the fall he had 3 weeks ago required him to be admitted to hospital. They couldn't have done more for him, he was treated so well and with dignity. The funeral was today and we gave him a really good send-off, he would have been proud of himself if he'd been able to listen to the eulogies given by my brother and my two sons! I'll have to get myself a hobby now, with all this extra time I'll have on my hands (once we've sorted his house out of course). Still, you lose one and you gain one ........ Our first grandchild is due in 4 days time!

  • Upvote 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Liverpool is an unfortunate but sardonically appropriate monika for a scheme to systematically starve and dehydrate unproductive old people into a quick and economical death. Liverpool is where (supposedly) cars are abandoned perched immobile on heaps of bricks after their wheels have been removed. It's where Jamie Bulger was murdered in cold blood. And as of yesterday we know it's where three young teenagers roaming the street in the small hours of the morning kicked a homeless man to death.

But I guess Liverpool had a nicer ring to it than the "Belsen Care Pathway".

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...