NHS managers have set up a coalition of healthcare regulatory bodies to decide on what will replace the Liverpool Care Pathway following a review calling for it to be scrapped.
The regulators - including NHS England, the CQC, the DH, Health Education England, NHS Improving Quality, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and NICE – will provide guidance on what will replace the controversial palliative care pathway. This comes after a review led by former Kings Fund chief-executive Baroness Julie Neuberger recommended it should be phased out within six to 12 months.
The group will also look at how to address the recommendations in the review about the accountability and responsibility of individual clinicians, out-of-hours decisions, nutrition and hydration and communication with the patient and their relatives or carers, NHS England has said.
The establishment of the coalition was one of Baroness Neuberger’s recommendations and will be led by Dr Bee Wee, the national clinical director for end of life care at NHS England, with the official title of the Leadership Alliance for the Care of Dying Patients (LACDP).
A statement from NHS England said: ‘The LACDP will engage extensively with both professionals involved in caring for dying patients as well as patients themselves and their families to gather views and ideas on good practice in caring for someone in the last days and hours of life.’
