NHS knows best?

Published on 14/11/2012 00:00

The recent furore over the Liverpool Care Pathway reminds me of when I first arrived in Edinburgh in 1985. The Royal Victoria Hospital had a blanket DNR policy which meant that no patients were to be resuscitated in the event of a cardiac arrest.

The doctors and nurses were all trained in CPR, but only to be used on fellow staff and visitors. The other nurses and doctors did not see anything wrong with the policy.

Five years later the policy changed, similarly with the 
Liverpool Care Pathway.

Patients were put on the 
Liverpool Care Pathway without discussing it first either with the patient or relative, and it has taken government intervention to ensure that this now happens.

Whose life is it anyway? The NHS still has a “nursey knows best” culture.

Neil Sinclair

Clarence Street

Edinburgh