Are British hospitals too reliant on using sedatives?

IN JANUARY 2017, at the age of 80, I spent 16 days in hospital recovering from an op on a broken hip. I was regularly given morphine. On day 13, my Registrar made a note on my file that I was not to be given any more, but this was ignored. On day 16, two of my daughters found me barely coherent and they demanded my discharge. I am a former nurse and know my children saved my life.

mARY ReAdeR, Ashford, Kent. MY DeaR late father suffered dreadfully at the end. However his death was eased by nursing staff who must have ‘allowed’ opiates to let him slip away comfortably. My 92-year-old mother died having suffered the degradation of dementia. Yet it took more than five years for her to succumb eventually. Kindness is key; the kindness of using modern medicines as the only answer when the end has come.

IAN gReeN, malvern, Worcs.

MY GRANDMOTHER passed away recently, because, we believe, of sickeningly similar treatment to that at Gosport. She went in due to an infection following an

operation, but she also had cancer for which she had been receiving alternative treatment. When my grandfather got to the hospital to share the news he had received that morning that the cancer was at low levels, she was gasping for air and staff had just given her a dose of morphine. We didn’t even get to say goodbye. Over the previous few weeks that my grandmother had been in the hospital, she was struggling with indigestion and found it uncomfortable to eat, but our requests for a drip for hydration and a feeding tube were refused. The staff drugged her up every few hours and she was often dopey when we went to see her. This was even after my grandmother hid some sedatives they gave her, keeping them in her mouth, then later giving them to us to dispose of when we visited. It was horrible to see. It is not up to medical staff to choose when we should die. You’re meant to be able to trust doctors and nurses. Now I am terrified of them.

Name and address supplied. hAVING watched close family drift into the horrible twilight world of old age and dementia, I hope a doctor will end my suffering if I reach such a state. having accepted that their loved ones have reached the end of their lives, many families would rather allow them to drift quietly into a peaceful sleep, instead of letting them end their days wracked with pain. Doctors have routinely increased pain relief in end-of-life scenarios. My own father died when a pain pump was adjusted just minutes before he passed away; a friend lost her mother to cancer after her doctor increased her dose of morphine and said it would be 15 minutes until she would be ‘at peace’. What is this if it is not a kind of euthanasia, the kindest type of compassion? We should have a grown-up conversation about the care we want at the end of our lives. I have written a living will and told my family I don’t want to survive as a shadow of myself if this happens to me.

liNda KeNdall, rayleigh, essex.