Category Archives: Liverpool Care Pathway

Toyah Willcox heartbreaking story of her beloved mum

Toyah Willcox: Doctors put my mother on ‘death pathway’ without telling me

Toyah Willcox, the singer and actress, has spoken of her shock at learning that doctors had placed her elderly mother on the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway.

Toyah Willcox, the singer and actress Photo: ROGER TAYLOR

7:09AM GMT 25 Mar 2013

Miss Willcox said she was not consulted about the decision to withdraw life–saving treatment.

She said she overheard a nurse tell her 81-year-old mother: “It’s all right Barbara, the end is near.”

The singer said she had wanted to support her mother when she was told she was being put on the Liverpool Care Pathway, which involves withdrawing invasive treatments or tests from patients in their final days and hours in order to ease their suffering.

Her mother, who had been suffering from cancer, died in her sleep in September 2011, a week after being admitted to St Richard’s Hospice in Worcester.

What do you think? Government pledge for end-of-life care welcomed by Norfolk families

Hospitals which fail to consult patients and their families over end-of-life care decisions could face legal action under new rules unveiled by North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb yesterday.

By DAVID BLACKMORE Tuesday, November 6, 2012
9:28 AM

Roy Cooper is unhappy that his wife Mary was put on the Liverpool Care Pathway at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn. Picture: Ian Burt
Roy Cooper is unhappy that his wife Mary was put on the Liverpool Care Pathway at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn. Picture: Ian Burt

Hospitals which fail to consult patients and their families over end-of-life care decisions could face legal action under new rules unveiled by North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb yesterday.

The care services minister said a new legal obligation in the NHS constitution would make “clear and explicit” the right of patients and their families to be informed over end-of-life treatment decisions, including the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP).

The announcement was last night welcomed by two West Norfolk families who claim their partners were put on the controversial care plan without being consulted or agreeing to it.

It also came as Denise Charlesworth-Smith, who lives in Brookville, near Methwold, yesterday met Conservative peer Baroness Knight who is calling for an independent inquiry to the care plan.

Doctors to launch investigation into Liverpool Care Pathway

Doctors are to investigate whether the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway, which is supposed to alleviate suffering, is actually being used to deliberately hasten death.

Hundreds of elderly people are being neglected in NHS hospitals

11:27AM BST 24 Oct 2012

Palliative care doctors are preparing to open an investigation in concerns that the Liverpool Care Pathway is being used to deliberately hasten the death of elderly and terminally-ill patients.

The Association for Palliative Medicine, representing over 1,000 doctors working in hospices and specialist palliative care units throughout the country, is going to carry out research to see if the LCP is operating as a “euthanasia pathway”.