Unheard Voices: The Liverpool Care Pathway

Introduction

This report, Unheard Voices: The Liverpool Care Pathway, exposes a lack of clear, reliable and publically accessible information over how the Liverpool Care Pathway (an end of life care pathway) is applied in hospitals.

Data from 21 London health trusts uncovered by Andrew Boff, Leader of the GLA Conservatives, shows:

• 38% of trusts (8) could not say how many patients were on the LCP
• 81% of trusts (17) could not provide the number of patients who were removed from the LCP and/or survived
• 81% of trusts (17) could not give the longest and shortest periods that patients were on the LCP
• 38% of trusts (8) could not provide any of the requested information on patients on the pathway

 
 
Andrew Boff, Leader of the GLA Conservatives, Londonwide Assembly Member and author of the report said:

“It is a scandal that we could not find basic information on the some of the most vulnerable people, those over 65 years of age, on the Liverpool Care Pathway. We are talking about straightforward figures that should be readily available in the public domain – the number of deaths of patients on the LCP, the length of time that patients are cared for on it, and the number of patients that are removed from it. Trusts should be required to record this information regularly, clearly and concisely, and the clinical commissioning groups should make sure that they do this.

 
The report recommends that independent advocates be made standardly available to patients without friends or family to represent them when they are in hospital, and when decisions are being made about whether they should be placed on the LCP.
 
 

The Report

Download the Unheard Voices report here

Press

Coming Soon
 

Contact

Andrew Boff, Report Author
Ray Sadri, GLA Conservatives Head of Press
Telephone: 020 7983 4960
Email: [email protected]