Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient (LCP)
A number of years ago, the Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient (LCP) was adapted and implemented in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust (RLBUHT) within an action research project of continuous quality improvement (Chapman 2009). Subsequently, a national LCP ICU study day was held as a joint project with the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute Liverpool (MCPCIL) and the palliative care section of the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) to disseminate the learning from this project and to encourage other units to consider implementation of the LCP ICU. To date more than 100 Intensive Care Services across the UK are registered to use LCP ICU Version 11.
LCP generic version 12 was published in December 2009 following an extensive 2 year consultation exercise. In line with this, the local pilot ICU Action Research group at the RLBUHT, working with the LCP Central Team and ICU colleagues have spent the last 12 months creating the LCP ICU Version 12. A pilot project, co-ordinated by the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute Liverpool (MCPCIL), sponsored and funding by the Merseyside and Cheshire Cancer Network (MCCN) on behalf of the Cheshire and Mersey Critical Care Network (CMCCN) has recently begun to implement LCP ICU Version 12 in services across the CMCCN. The broad aim of the project is to ensure a high quality and consistent approach to the delivery of care in the last hours or days of life across the CMCCN and to develop a mechanism for the ongoing collection/sharing of data to promote and sustain the delivery of quality care into the future. It will culminate in a benchmark across the network of all LCP ICU Version 12 documents used during the implementation period.
In light of the findings from this pilot project, further amendments to the LCP ICU Version 12 may be required. However, we are pleased to make this example copy of the current version 12 document and the accompanying goal data dictionary available to view for your information.
Key LCP ICU documents
If you have any comments or queries about the above documentation, please contact:
Rachel Abbott
LCP Administrator
Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute Liverpool (MCPCIL)
c/o Directorate of Specialist Palliative Care
1st Floor, Linda McCartney Centre
Royal Liverpool University Hospital
Prescot Street
Liverpool
L7 8XP
Direct Line: 00 44 (0)151 706 3726
Main Reception: 00 44 (0)151 706 2274
Email: rachel.abbott@rlbuht.nhs.uk
