Tag Archives: liverpool care pathway

Norman Lamb writes… A once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix our health and care system

In 1997 Tony Blair told the Labour Party conference “I don’t want brought up in a country where the only way pensioners can get long-term care is by selling their home.” And yet speaking to the Health Select Committee in 2010, in Labour’s final months in office, Andy Burnham said, “every member of the Cabinet believed social care to be an area that had not been properly reformed and was one of great unfairness”. In thirteen years of talk, and promises, Labour did nothing to fix our dysfunctional, and profoundly unfair, system of funding social care.

In …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 15 Comments

Norman Lamb writes: The Liverpool Care Pathway and end of life care

I imagine many people had not heard of the Liverpool Care Pathway before it hit the headlines a couple of weeks ago with allegations of patients denied drugs, liquid and sustenance and families experiencing real distress. Set up in the late 1990s, its intention was to help spread elements of the hospice model of care into other settings: hospitals, care homes and people’s own homes. We all want to know that our loved ones – no matter where they are – will receive dignified and appropriate care in the last hours and days of their life.

Used properly, the Pathway ensures that individuals receive whatever treatments are right for them in their final days. The Liverpool Care Pathway itself is very clear that patients should be involved in decisions about their care if possible, and that carers and families should always be included in the decision-making process.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 7 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Peter Chambers
    Thanks @Simon R for the comment. Yes more can be done within the Laws of Thermodynamics, or indeed the more complete Statistical Mechanics. And the UK is in the...
  • Freddie
    Rodrigo, re: a closed matter planetary system - taking your argument as true, can we not overcome this by venturing beyond our planet - mining asteroids, off wo...
  • Philip Maher
    Ref Mike Norman above: Mike seems to be confused - he's right in terms of classic liberalism involving "empowerment" by allowing claimants to manage their re...
  • John Waller
    Tom, I have always agreed with your views. But on Iran mine differ. During the war my Iranian friend sent me the Tiktok link above, and we talked for some tim...
  • David Warren
    The 1924 Labour government was desperate to appear respectable and it achieved that. However they were still brought down by a Red Scare. Returning to office...