Post by rick on Aug 20, 2014 1:18:59 GMT
DAILY MAIL COMMENT: A callous request to sign your life away
To limit unplanned hospital admissions, the elderly are currently being visited in their home by district nurses, armed with questionnaires.
Few will argue with the aim of reducing the number of people being placed needlessly in institutional care – which is both distressing for them and expensive for an NHS under ever-increasing strain.
It’s also perfectly fair and compassionate for the nurses to ask if, as many people will wish, they have a preference to die at home when the time comes.
But, as we report today, there are grave concerns about another question on the list: Do you agree to a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) notice?
The Royal College of Nursing says its members, most of whom will be meeting the patient for the first time, should not be put into the position of asking the elderly to sign their life away, particularly since they may be confused or not have a relative present to support them.
Roy Lilley, a respected health care expert, warns the replies will encourage GPs – themselves under budgetary pressure – to compile a ‘death list’, which they can produce whenever the person falls ill or is taken to hospital.
Indeed, he adds, the question itself is ‘callous’ and potentially disturbing, since it might leave the frail or vulnerable wondering if the visiting nurse ‘knows something they do not’, and death is imminent.
Doubtless the NHS will say there is no malice intended, but this approach is as deeply troubling as it is insensitive.Don’t forget the Liverpool Care Pathway – under which patients judged to be dying were left without treatment, food or fluids – similarly began with supposedly humane intentions, only to be scrapped after this newspaper highlighted fears that it was being coldly misused to free hospital beds.
www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2729408/A-callous-request-sign-life-away.html
To limit unplanned hospital admissions, the elderly are currently being visited in their home by district nurses, armed with questionnaires.
Few will argue with the aim of reducing the number of people being placed needlessly in institutional care – which is both distressing for them and expensive for an NHS under ever-increasing strain.
It’s also perfectly fair and compassionate for the nurses to ask if, as many people will wish, they have a preference to die at home when the time comes.
But, as we report today, there are grave concerns about another question on the list: Do you agree to a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) notice?
The Royal College of Nursing says its members, most of whom will be meeting the patient for the first time, should not be put into the position of asking the elderly to sign their life away, particularly since they may be confused or not have a relative present to support them.
Roy Lilley, a respected health care expert, warns the replies will encourage GPs – themselves under budgetary pressure – to compile a ‘death list’, which they can produce whenever the person falls ill or is taken to hospital.
Indeed, he adds, the question itself is ‘callous’ and potentially disturbing, since it might leave the frail or vulnerable wondering if the visiting nurse ‘knows something they do not’, and death is imminent.
Doubtless the NHS will say there is no malice intended, but this approach is as deeply troubling as it is insensitive.Don’t forget the Liverpool Care Pathway – under which patients judged to be dying were left without treatment, food or fluids – similarly began with supposedly humane intentions, only to be scrapped after this newspaper highlighted fears that it was being coldly misused to free hospital beds.
www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2729408/A-callous-request-sign-life-away.html