Palliative Care Needs Common Sense

An eminent NHS Palliative Consultant has spoken to TomsAnguish and says that there is a:

lack of basic nursing care on wards - mouth care, nutrition, bowel care (we have just had a 42 year old lady die at home following 4 weeks on an orthopaedic ward - we had to MANUALLY evacuate her bowel under intravenous sedation 3 times in the dying period due to gross and unforgiveable constipation).

lack of communication - doctors and nurses (to each other, to other doctors and most importantly to patients/relatives).

lack of pain control - drugs witheld, not given on time or unnacceptable delays in giving drugs.

lack of dignity/respect.

lack of management - no senior managers ever seem to visit the wards to see what chaos is going on daily.

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The email below has been sent to Palliative Care Institutes, Palliative Care Consultants, Palliative Care Training Centres and End of Life Hospices in the UK and Worldwide.

The Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute Liverpool has kindly contacted us 8/10/09:

'We believe a good death in our society should be the norm not the exception. I realise that your experience is of a bad death and that there are no words or actions that can change your situation, however your views on the LCP and how we can strive to enable care in the last hours and days of life to be of a high standard for all, would be much appreciated'.

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EMAIL Sent 7/10/09: Thomas Milner Case No. 6 Patients Association Report.

My father was dying. He had a syringe driver already in situ when he was transferred onto a Palliative Care ward at the Northern General Hospital, Sheffield.

The Palliative Care Consultant failed to 'calculate and consider' any of the considerable amounts of extra prn morphine that had been given in the previous 24 hours and left the syringe driver holding just 10mgs. morphine when she did her round, 10.30a.m. 10/1/06. (24 hours before death!).

(The Syringe Driver had been in situ for 32 hours when she did her round. At the time when the syringe driver was commenced, at the starting rate of 10mgs. morphine, he WAS NOT morphine naive either - he had been receiving considerable amounts of morphine subcutaneously for 2 days prior to the set up!).

Should Palliative Care rules and guidelines be scrapped and replaced by common sense, compassion and basic care? Everybody is different.

Sir Andrew Cash OBE of the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust no less, wrote to me a couple of weeks ago listing set up time and refill of the syringe driver. These were ERRONEOUS. We have the medical notes and know exactly when the syringe driver was set up and refilled.

Dr. Richmond, Medical Diector of the Sheffield Teaching Hospital Trust phoned me last week after I had pointed out Sir Andrew's mistake (nearly 4 years after my father's death). This Doctor would NOT stand by the times as listed in the letter when asked to do so. What ARE they trying to cover up?

The Prime Minister, Lady Finlay of Llandaff, Lord Turnbull, Lord Joffe, Christine Beasley and Liam Donaldson have been contacted. I wonder what they will make of it all. The letter sent to them and the email confirming Dr. Richmond's refusal to standby the false times can be seen at www.tomsanguish.com

Palliative Care in in crisis as some leading Palliative Care Professors and Doctors wrote in the Telegraph 3/9/09

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8235106.stm

Time to rethink and regroup.

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Read here 'Letter to the Telegraph 3/9/09' signed by eminent Professors, Dr.s' and Lady Salisbury, Chairwoman - ChooseLife-uk.net

Read here the article 'Crisis over Terminally-ill Care'

Read here 'Doctor's Criticise DoH Palliative Care Model'