Backdoor euthanasia in the NHS
Official watchdog, the ‘Care Quality Commission’ (CQC), has found that hospitals are making use of ‘do not resuscitate’ (DNR) orders outside of medical guidelines, and that these potentially-lethal notices are being placed on the files of patients simply because they are old and frail.
DNR orders record an advance decision that a patient's life should not be saved if their heart stops. Under medical guidelines, a DNR order should only be issued after senior staff have discussed the matter with the patient's family. A form, signed by two doctors, is then placed in the patient's notes to record what decision was taken.
However, it has now been uncovered that these orders are routinely being applied without the knowledge of either the patient or their relatives.
Despite its findings, the CQC made no mention about the misuse of DNR notices in its recent national report. The problem has only been brought to light due to an analysis of CQC inspection reports by ‘Action on Elder Abuse’, an independent charity.
They found widespread evidence that patients are being left to die, without families knowing that such decisions had been taken until afterwards: “In some cases these [DNR’s] were routinely inserted into patient files on admission. In others the decision was left to junior doctors, who never consulted the patients or their families.”
Dossier of Cases
Action on Elder Abuse has now compiled a dossier of cases to document the abuse.
Inspectors who visited Queen Elizabeth Hospital, for example, found no evidence that any of the patients whose files were marked DNR had been informed about the decision, nor their relatives told. The hospital's own audit showed that in one ward, 30 per cent of cases did not involve any such conversations.
At University Hospitals Bristol Foundation trust, there was no evidence that a DNR order placed on a patient had been discussed with the person or next of kin. A junior doctor told inspectors that they did "not tend to discuss" such decisions with families.
At Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, a patient was labelled as DNR based on old medical notes from a previous admission, despite the fact their health had improved.
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS trust is currently facing legal action from David Tracey over the death of his wife Janet, who claims that doctors twice put DNR orders on her notes against her explicit wishes.
Euthanasia by the back door
Gary Fitzgerald, the charity's chief executive said:
"We believe that there is a real danger here that we are seeing euthanasia by default and by the back door.
"In some cases it is occurring by accident, because the practices being used are not safe; in others, we are seeing junior doctors taking decisions without consulting patients or family."
Andrea Minichiello Williams, CEO of Christian Concern, said:
“These appalling findings sit within a wider erosion of respect for life in the UK and a continued push for assisted suicide by high profile groups and individuals. We need to re-discover the sanctity of life, and encourage society to protect the vulnerable.”
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