Daily Mail report on 60,000 people being put on the dying pathway

I never believe what the newspapers say, which is why half the time i dont read them, and today proved that. There was a report about 60,000 people being put on the dying pathway, also known as the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP). For those not in the know, it is a document that nurses and doctors use when the patient in a hospice / hospital are deemed to be very poorly, and have not got long to live.

In real terms, and as a hospice nurse, all it means is that we are condensing down all the care plans we have to write, into one document. If we put someone on the LCP, it is after families have been spoken too, where we have told them, that their loved one is less well, and time is short. We dont always tell them we are putting the patient on the LCP, since in real terms, it means nothing. The care, the treatment, doesnt change. It is just a document for us, that also allows future nurses looking at the care notes, to be able to access certain information quicker, and acts as a guide, that this particular patient will need more observation than others.

If people go on it, certainly from a hospice perspective, treatment such as infusions, further radiotherapy etc, will have been discussed on initial contact to the ward. So like i say the LCP doesnt change anything.

Well i just thought i would write this here, since i am not on any other websites, Facebook etc, but for those who saw that headline today, dont be afraid, that we are condoning people to death. Its never that straight forward. But for those who want to know more, feel free to email me here.

the papers will always put the headline to sell the papers........facts are not important to them anymore.......

Unfotunately the press always make it sound like some sort of involuntary euthanasia path. Whilst there are hopsices and the nursing profession that look after our loved ones for very little in terms of reward (tube drivers apparently get £45K per annum and don't want to work bank holidays)  we are still in safe hands.

Can we vote for who goes on the list? or do they have to be people who are ill

The clue is in the words "Daily Mail..." at the start

Sadly most of my family seem to get their views from the daily mail.  This video sums up the paper to me

Most papers are gutter rags.

Yesterday the Metro was saying that "parents are to blame for increase in type 1 diabetes in children" because they were not spotting the symptoms.

Never mind that type 1 diabetes is not diet/lifestyle-related, nor that even if parents do spot (and recognise) the symptoms, that won't cure the diabetes....  "no known reason for increase in type 1 diabetes in children" isn't such a good headline.

Shiva - love the song.  There does seem to be a certain type of Daily Mail reader mentality where they would agree that newspapers write a lot of misleading rubbish - apart from the Daily Mail which taps very succesfully into things that concern them.  Reason goes out out of the window and they just believe every word.

Regrettably a lot of people suffer as a consequence.

I love the song too. I gave up reading newspapers a long time ago, and just catch the basic headlines from the World News. The world is shit, this country could be a lot better, but what else is new. I think the worst thing they did was the petrol crisis, when people panic buyed, and that women died from burn injuries.

My original point about the Liverpool Care Pathway, certainly will make my job harder as a hospice nurse, but i also have had people die in the days since that article, and the families, have been remarkably sensible. Not mentioning it once, again, making me believe that us British are no fools, not believing everything we read.

That's good to hear - maybe there is hope for the great British public yet.

Now there is a magazine called "What the doctors don't tell you" or something similar. Unfortunately it gets read by people like my elderly FiL who then spout nonsense at you and fully believe all that is written.
He fell for the doctors don't want to use my herbal tea cancer cure, that apparently worked on a few dogs and on a couple of humans. Dogs that have chemo do not lose their fur, unlike humans losing their hair, so it seems to me that how it works for dogs is not neccessarily going to work on humans. This weeks issue in the shops has a different story but again on curing cancer in a totally different way.

Hi, again CJ.  Whenever anybody spouts nonsense I'm always keen to establish just where they've got their information from.  It can often then be dismissed a work of fiction - or if it's research from the University of too much time on their hands, is probably funded by someone who not surprising has got the answer and publicity they wanted all along.

The Daily mail have been running with this story more and more frequently of late, can;t see what the agenda is beyond writing bollocks and scaremongering (though that is true of almost everything they write). 

2wheels wrote (see)

The Daily mail have been running with this story more and more frequently of late, can;t see what the agenda is beyond writing bollocks and scaremongering (though that is true of almost everything they write). 

I have been at my hospice for over 7 years, and i have put countless people on the Liverpool Care Pathway. The papers forget to realise, that we dont give up on people, but people do become less well, that cancer has no sense of remorse, or guilt, and it will keep on spreading no matter what we do as health professionals. Hence people do get weaker, less responsive. And yes, their prognosis, can often be only days, hence we use this tool, to help better streamline the care.

Another common thing i am asked is why we dont give people fluids, or stick a tube down their throat and artificially feed them. I am all for that if it provides better quality of life, but pretty much all the time, all your doing is making them uncomfortable since the body is too unwell to deal with diet and fluid overload, and it is just feeding the cancer. I wish the Daily Mail would understand these things, before making idiotic comments.

SteadyCJ wrote (see)

Now there is a magazine called "What the doctors don't tell you" or something similar. Unfortunately it gets read by people like my elderly FiL who then spout nonsense at you and fully believe all that is written.

I've just had a look at their website and can think of several people I know who would believe this nonsense.  Scary.