Introducing the Liverpool Care Pathway into nursing homes

Around half a million older people aged 65 or over live in care homes across the UK and substantial numbers end their lives in these care settings. The Liverpool Care Pathway for the dying patient (LCP) was developed to transfer the hospice model of care into other care settings. This paper describes a pilot project to introduce the LCP into care homes local to the Queen Mary's Sidcup NHS Trust with a view to reducing the number of very ill elderly patients who are transferred to the acute trust from care homes and then die in A&E.