ABSTRACT
The reports on Stafford were about institutional failings that impacted on patient care. At the same time, there were concerns about end-of-life care that focussed on a widely used protocol called the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP). The LCP was designed to take best practice and make it common practice across the National Health Service (NHS). The Neuberger Report that heralded the end of the LCP was published in the same year as the second, and definitive, Francis Report 2013. End-of-life care presents particular challenges for health services, you have one chance to get it right, and getting it right is not about cure but is about achieving a good death – a complex construct that requires engaging with the physical, psychological and spiritual elements of a person's life as well as with the concerns of those closest to them. This chapter examines criticisms of the LCP and considers how far they were justified. It looks at governance and at cultures of care. The chapter concludes with examining how far change had occurred in the response to the revelations about the LCP.
