REPORT: UK hospitals get paid for putting terminally-ill patients on 'pathway' to death...

This is concerning given that Obama has stated it is the British healthcare system he desires to follow with his Obamacare.

We are already seeing some of this with the new Medicare ruling that hospitals will be fined for re-admitting a patient within 30 days of being discharged from the hospital.

I wonder how much of this is true. I'd like to think none of it is true but have seen this information in several places being subject of discussion. Very sad.

Article:


NHS millions for controversial care pathway

But opponents described it as “absolutely shocking” that hospitals could be paid to employ potentially “lethal” treatments.

The LCP was originally developed at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and the city’s Marie Curie hospice to ease suffering in dying patients, setting out principles for how they to be treated.

It involves the withdrawal of treatments or tests from patients which doctors believe could cause distress and do more harm than good.

Protocols say that doctors should consult the patient, if possible, and their families.

But the system has been mired in controversy amid claims that it can actively hasten death.

A series of cases have also come to light in which family members said they were not consulted or even informed when food and fluids were withheld from their loved-ones.

In some instances patients placed on the pathway because doctors judged that they were nearing the end of their life went on to recover.

According to responses from a sample of 72 trusts, at least £12.4 million has been paid out in the past two to three years to trusts which hit targets associated with use of the care pathway. But the full figure could be more than £20 million.

Under a system known as “Commissioning for Quality and Innovation” (CQUIN), local NHS commissioners pay trusts for meeting targets to “reward excellence” in care.


[link to www.telegraph.co.uk]