Bishop’s warning over Liverpool Care Pathway

HOSPITALS should not receive financial incentives for using the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway, the Bishop of Exeter has said.

The Government has set up a review of the pathway, led by Rabbi Baroness Neuberger, following widespread media criticism of it.

The pathway, which sets out clinical guidelines for people close to death, has been the subject of recent controversy, with relatives claiming they were not told it was being used.

At question time in the House of Lords, Bishop Michael Langrish said: “If there is to be full confidence in what is undoubtedly a useful clinical tool that has helped many thousands of people to experience better care in the last hours and days of their life, non-clinical priorities in the use of the pathway, especially financial priorities, must be eradicated, and every patient should be treated solely according to their needs.”

He suggested to health minister Earl Howe that payments could be linked to staff trained to use the pathway rather than the number of patients put on it.

Lord Howe said he was sure Lady Neuberger would want to look at the issue.

He said the pathway was considered internationally to be best practice and the payments were designed to incentivise that.

“In one sense, it is therefore logical that the two should be combined,” he said.

“It is equally important for me to emphasise that the Department of Health has not attached any set financial targets to the LCP; on the other hand, some commissioners in the NHS have introduced local incentives. The way in which those incentives have been applied should be the subject of close attention.”