An evaluation of routine specialist palliative care for patients on the Liverpool Care Pathway

Introduction: This report describes a service evaluation of the 'added value' of routine specialist palliative care team (SPCT) involvement with patients on the Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient (LCP).

Methods: In the authors' hospital, patients that are commenced on the LCP are routinely referred to the SPCT. They are reviewed on the day of referral and then at least every other day, depending on the clinical situation. The data for this report was obtained by reviewing the SPCT's clinical database and the patients' LCP proformas.

Results: The SPCT intervened in the care of 80% of 158 newly referred patients, e.g. for alteration of continuous subcutaneous infusion (23%) or alteration of use of non-pharmacological interventions (21%). Furthermore, 11% of patients were taken off the LCP, around one quarter of whom were later put back on.

Conclusions: The authors' model of care could overcome many of the issues relating to the LCP and would ameliorate the developing vacuum of care for patients at the end of life.