Dying concerns

Published on 29/10/2012 00:00

Coincidentally, the day (27 October) you published the article entitled “Doctors not told to hasten deaths”, says health secretary Alex Neil, I received a letter from a very good friend in Hampshire. Enclosed were cuttings from an English newspaper and letters to the editor, outlining the horrors associated with the Liverpool Care Pathway – elderly people are clearly terrified.

You report that “£30 million has been handed to NHS hospitals south of the Border in past three years to achieve LCP goals”. Thank goodness politicians in Scotland have condemned these actions and that the health secretary has “vowed not to ask doctors to hit targets for the number of patients who die on the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway”. I feel immense sympathy for people in England who are frightened by this dreadful policy and hope that people in Scotland will consider the consequences, in this regard, of a No vote in our independence referendum.

Bill McLean

Rosemill Court

Newmills, Dunfermline