The Bishop of Portsmouth has welcomed the Government's decision to
scrap financial incentives for hospitals that put dying patients on the
Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP).In a statement Bishop Philip Egan welcomed the Government's on-going review of the LCP, which provides guidance about the treatment of dying patients, and said that the decision to stop paying hospitals would help clarify their motives for putting patients on the Pathway.
"I worry that [financial incentives] could easily ‘blur' motives. I am delighted therefore that the Government is going to stop these payments and thus to avoid any potential confusion."
The Minister of State for Care and Support, Norman Lamb, said this week that the Government would stop paying hospitals to use the LCP after the first in a series of meetings with patients' families.
Mr Lamb said: "It is important that I respect the independence of this review but I have already made clear that I have serious concerns about the use of financial incentives and that they should only ever be used if they demonstrably improve patient care."
Bishop Egan spoke out against misuse of the Liverpool Care Pathway in a Teaching Message last year. In a homily he called for a re-evaluation of the treatment, which he said could become a "heartless act of cruelty towards the weakest and most defenceless."