BBC News | HEALTH | NHS euthanasia claims ludicrous'

BBC News Online: Health

Monday, 6 December, 1999, 13:19 GMT

NHS euthanasia claims ludicrous'

A senior consultant's claim that elderly patients are being left to starve to death in NHS hospitals has been dismissed by Health Secretary Alan Miburn as "ludicrous".

Dr Adrian Treloar, a consultant in old age psychiatry and senior lecturer in geriatrics at the Greenwich Hospital and Guys', King's and St Thomas's Hospitals in London, said there was an unofficial policy of "involuntary euthanasia".

He said patients were being denied appropriate treatment partly because of the huge pressures on beds building up in the health service.

Dr Adrian Treloar

Police are reported to be investigating 60 cases involving pensioners who died after allegedly being deprived of food and water by hospital staff

Detectives in Derbyshire have filed a report, said to run into several thousand pages, to the Crown Prosecution Service, after a 22-month inquiry at the Kingsway Hospital in Derby.

The investigation is understood to centre on the deaths of around 30 elderly patients.

A pressure group formed by relatives, SOS NHS Patients in Danger, is considering taking the issue to the European Court of Human Rights.

But, speaking on the Today programme on Wednesday, Mr Milburn said: "If the allegation is that the NHS is routinely starving elderly people to make more room in hospitals it is simply untrue, it is ludicrous, it is scaremongering.

"Frankly, it is also an attack on the integrity of doctors and nurses who spend most of their working day caring for elderly patients."

It is very clear that the elderly do not always get all the care they need
Dr Adrian Treloar

Dr Treloar told the BBC on Tuesday: "It is very clear that the elderly do not always get all the care they need."

He was also quoted in an interview with the Daily Telegraph as saying "there may be a tendency" to limit care for the elderly who are very seriously ill to relieve severe pressure on NHS beds.

He claimed that old people who start to resist early discharge are seen as "an encumbrance".

Dr Treloar said he had heard many allegations from families of relatives being denied treatment and left to die in NHS wards.

BMA guidelines

Dr Michael Wilks

Recent British Medical Association (BMA) guidelines say doctors should be allowed to authorise withdrawal of food and water by tube for victims of severe stroke and dementia who can no longer express their wishes.

The guidance says: "Doctors should have the final say over whether treatment including feeding and giving water is in the patient's best interest. It is not always appropriate to prolong life."

Dr Michael Wilks, chairman of the BMA's ethics committee, said the guidelines were drawn up because of widespread confusion among doctors about what was acceptable practice.

"We tried to help doctors work through a clinical framework, working out whether the particular treatment - which might include artificial nutrition and hydration - was in fact of benefit to the patient.

"When you have a treatment that is of no further benefit you have an ethical responsibility to at least consider withdrawing it."

Dr Wilks said it still unacceptable for doctors to withdraw treatment specifically to kill patients.

Call for government action

The charity for the elderly, Age Concern, demanded urgent government action and accused the NHS of adopting a culture of ageism and rampant discrimination.

Sally Greengross, Age Concern director general, said: "We have been contacted by thousands of people who have complained about the treatment of the elderly in the NHS system.

"What this senior consultant has said links very closely with our own findings. We need urgent legislation to prevent this discrimination."

Related to this story:
Doctors allowed to let patients die (23 Jun 99 | Health)
BMA stands by end-of-life guidance (08 Jul 99 | Health)
BMA guidance: The main points (23 Jun 99 | Health)
Mood swings 'create euthanasia danger' (28 Oct 99 | Health)

Internet Links: Prolife Alliance Department of Health British Medical Association Voluntary Euthanasia Society
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