header-logo header-logo

A lethal power?

23 November 2012 / Jacqueline Laing
Issue: 7539 / Categories: Opinion
printer mail-detail

Jacqueline Laing addresses concerns about the Liverpool Care Pathway

In 2008, a year after the Mental Capacity Act 2005 came into force, the Liverpool Care Pathway was recommended as the Department of Health’s end-of-life care strategy. Only a year later 300 hospitals, 560 care homes and 130 hospices in England had rolled out the programme. Around 130,000 people a year now are reported to die on the Pathway (29% of the annual 450,000). Freedom of Information Act requests performed by one enterprising journalist subsequently revealed financial incentives to hospitals and care homes that implemented the programme (J Bingham, “NHS millions for controversial care pathway”, The Telegraph, 1 November 2012). Millions of pounds were paid to roll out the regime. The sub-programme, Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN), requires that local NHS commissioners remunerate trusts for meeting “Gold Standards” targets in implementing the Pathway. In certain areas, targets are set specifically to increase the numbers of people in their hospital dying on the Pathway. More worryingly, some hospitals had set targets of between a third and

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
back-to-top-scroll