They enjoy life to the full and don’t want their days to end on the whim of a doctor’s signature.
These four pensioners are bravely fighting back against a draconian NHS policy that sees over-65s assessed for frailty and handed notices saying they will be denied resuscitation if they suffer a heart attack or stop breathing. Bob, Peter, Stella and Shirley have all told the Mail they were slapped with a DNAR (do not attempt resuscitation) order against their wishes.
They are among hundreds of people who have written to tell us that DNARs were wrongly put on their medical files or those of their loved ones. All too often it seems these orders have been handed out secretly by NHS staff without the patient’s consent or even their knowledge.
These four pensioners — and many others — seem to have been ensnared in a no doubt well-intentioned new NHS project to help older people live independently at home towards the end of their days, rather than receiving care in hospital. This drive follows the much-hated Liverpool Care Pathway, scrapped in 2014, which denied patients water when they were dying in hospitals, care homes or hospices.
Now NHS England plans to give everyone aged over 65 a ‘national frailty score’.
Read More: How dare the NHS throw us on the scrap heap!
