Care homes still making ‘no recovery’ orders, MPS fear

A REVIEW of “Do Not Attempt Resuscitation” orders on care home residents is being called for by MPS, as fears grow that blanket decisions are still being taken.

Concerns emerged during the first wave of the pandemic, when it was found that some care homes had placed orders on every single resident.

The Care Quality Commission is conducting an inquiry, but MPS are concerned that “blanket” orders imposed months ago could send thousands to their death in coming months.

A cross-party group of MPS, backed by Amnesty International, is calling for every order on care home residents’ files to be urgently reviewed.

Kate Allen, Amnesty International’s UK director, said the unlawful use of the orders for care home residents was a “clear violation of human rights”.

She said the policies may already have caused needless deaths and no one knew how many DNARS remained on file. “Many of those vulnerable people could get ill over the coming winter and unless action is taken now, more lives could be lost,” she said.

One former director of nursing from Lancashire said she was shocked to learn during the first wave that such an order was to be placed on her 85-yearold mother – and on all her fellow care home residents.

She said: “We felt absolutely helpless. At this stage we weren’t allowed any visits at all. If mum had been ill we might not even have known; we were reliant on what the care home staff were telling us, not even nurses, and there weren’t even any doctors going in.”

Sixteen MPS, including the chairmen of the all-party parliamentary groups on coronavirus, on ageing and older people, and on rural health and social care, have written to the Health Secretary, calling for an urgent review of every DNAR placed on file.

They said they were “incredibly disturbed” by reports of “clearly unlawful and unethical” policies and while the CQC review was welcome, its findings may come too late.

“An unknown number of DNARS remain in care home residents’ files. Many of those people could get ill over the winter – they cannot wait for the outcomes of the CQC review and neither should they need to,” they warn.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said it was “completely unacceptable” for “DNAR policies to be applied in a blanket fashion to any group of people”.

He said: “This has never been policy and we have taken action to prevent this.”