Liverpool Care Pathway

Twenty-two leading health and social care organisations have published a consensus statement on the Liverpool Care Pathway. The consensus statement aims to provide clarity about what the Liverpool Care Pathway is - and what it is not.

 Read the full statement

The hospice movement in the UK is famous around the world for looking after dying people with dignity and skill. Since the late 1990s, the Liverpool Care Pathway has been helping to spread elements of the hospice model of care into other healthcare settings, such as hospitals, care homes and people's own homes.

At Willowbrook Hospice, we support the use of the Liverpool Care Pathway. The Liverpool Care Pathway is not in any way about ending life, but rather about supporting the delivery of excellent end of life care.

The Liverpool Care Pathway:

• Requires staff to ensure all decisions to either continue or to stop a treatment are taken in the best interest of each patient. The decision to consider using the Liverpool Care Pathway should always be made by the most senior doctor available, with the help from all the other staff involved in a person's care.
   
• Emphasises that patients should be involved in decisions about their care if possible and that carers and families should always be included in the decision-making process.  
   
• Relies on staff being trained to have a thorough understanding of how to care for people who are in their last days or hours of life.
   
• Is continually evaluated in all the places where it is in use

The Liverpool Care Pathway does not:

• Replace clinical judgement and is not a treatment, but a framework for good practice.
   
• Hasten or delay death, but ensures that the right type of care is available for people in the last days or hours of life when all of the possible reversible causes for their condition have been considered.
   
• Preclude the use of clinically assisted nutrition or hydration – it prompts clinicians to consider whether it is needed and is in the person’s best interest. 

If you have concerns about any aspect of your care or the care of a loved one, then please speak to one of the doctors.