Public Law Experts Welcome New Guidelines On End-of-life Care

Public law specialists have welcomed new guidelines from health watchdog, NICE, which state that care for dying patients must be tailored to the needs of the individual, rather than making decisions based on a "tick-box approach”.

The National Institute for Health Care and Excellent (NICE) produced the new guidance to address the problems of the previous system used to assess the needs of the dying, the Liverpool Care Pathway (LPC).

The new recommendations suggest that patients must be treated with respect and compassion, and that doctors should avoid making "snap decisions" about whether someone was dying.

The LCP was introduced in the late 1990s, to ensure that people had a dignified and comfortable death.

It involved checklists for staff to consider whether invasive procedures, drips and drugs should be withdrawn from people in the late stages of life.

A government-commissioned review led to the LCP being phased out last year after serious concerns that it was being misused and had created a "tick-box" culture surfaced.

The latest and wide-ranging guidelines cover many of the same key principles as the LCP but NICE have called for a stronger focus on individual plans for each patient, saying their wishes and those of their family must be central.

Partner and Head of public law at Irwin Mitchell, Yogi Amin, welcomed the new guidelines and said it was step forward in terms of person centred patient care.