From the Telegraph:
Under NHS guidance introduced across England to help doctors and medical staff deal with dying patients, they can then have fluid and drugs withdrawn and many are put on continuous sedation until they pass away.
But this approach can also mask the signs that their condition is improving, the experts warn...
“Forecasting death is an inexact science,”they say. Patients are being diagnosed as being close to death “without regard to the fact that the diagnosis could be wrong.
“As a result a national wave of discontent is building up, as family and friends witness the denial of fluids and food to patients."
The warning comes just a week after a report by the Patients Association estimated that up to one million patients had received poor or cruel care on the NHS.
Comment: This is what occurs when government is charged with the responsibilty to budget and set guidelines for end of life procedures. No one should be surprised by this.
HT: Carpe Diem
3 comments:
After the elderly whom will they target?
A family member was not supposed to make it to Christmas Eve last year. Just last month he was in hospice, again, "hours from death." His family had been encouraged by hospice doctors and were in turn pressuring his wife to end all heroic measures... stuff like food & water... so he could die peacefully and quickly. He is back home again, spending more gifted time with his two pre-teen sons.
The black helicopter crowd probably sees more in this than I do but can we really trust our government not to screw this up?
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