Coronavirus: Medical groups unite to condemn bulk ‘Do Not Revive’ plan for sick and disabled people
This should be seen as absolute proof that it has been a policy to deny coronavirus care to people with long-term illnesses and disabilities.
This Writer has noted some scepticism in the responses to yesterday’s article about the GP practice in Wales that wrote to people with ongoing medical conditions, telling them that equipment used to treat coronavirus is being rationed and they were not likely to be treated if they contracted the disease. Instead, the letter asked them to sign a form directing medical staff not to attempt to resuscitate them if they succumbed to the virus.
My own attitude to this is clear: as we have all paid into the National Health Service, throughout our lives, we all deserve the best possible care available from it. I asked: do politicians and royalty get preferential treatment? If so, why?
Also, just because a person has an underlying condition, that doesn’t mean they won’t be able to shrug off the virus, given the same help that is provided to everybody else.
Now the British Medical Association, the Care Provider Alliance, the Care Quality Commission and the Royal College of General Practitioners have released a joint statement, saying more or less the same.
Here’s the statement:
It reads [boldings mine]:
The importance of having a personalised care plan in place, especially for older people, people who are frail or have other serious conditions has never been more important than it is now during the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Where a person has capacit, as defined by the Mental Capacity Act, this advance care plan should always be discussed with them directly. Where a person lacks the capacity to engage with this process then it is reasonable to produce such a plan following best interest guidelines with the involvement of family members or other appropriate individuals.
Such advance care plans may result in the consideration and completion of a Do Not Attempt Resuscitation (DNAR) or ReSPECT form. It remains essential that these decisions are made on an individual basis. The General Practitioner continues to have a central role in the consideration, completion and signing of DNAR forms for people in community settings.
It is unacceptable for advance care plans, with or without DNAR form completion to be applied to groups of people of any description. These decisions must continue to be made on an individual basis according to need.
It’s saying that any policy requiring medical staff to write off any individual – of any age and condition – as untreatable without discussing their situation with them is wrong.
If the government has handed that down to healthcare providers as a requirement, then it is wrong.
If anybody has already died as a result of such a policy, then those responsible must be identified and must pay the appropriate penalty.
This is real. It is important. It could be deadly. Don’t let the Tories get away with it.
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Why all the fuss they culled the stock through benefits denial now they rid themselves of useless eaters aktion T4 not rolling along but going now at a tremendous pace
The fascist Tories are enacting eugenics and the public still refuses to see what is happening! Fascist tories demanding medical staff not treat certain groups of women and men is blatant state instigated murder! Remember it was very easy for the Nazis to commence mass murder of certain groups because they were viewed as ‘vermin.’ Now the fascist tories are enacting their long held belief that certain groups of women and men are ‘worthless’ and hence can be left to die!
A DNR is a death sentence. It can also be taken as meaning “do not treat” where antibiotics, fluids, and care will be witheld. It may also mean some addled version of the discredited inhumane Liverpool pathway being used.
It’s not just in Wales there are reports of similar letters in Brighton and Hove, and this is from the BBC news, for those who don’t believe it’s happening.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52155359