Patients 'Sentenced to Death' By National Health Service, British Doctors Say

In a letter to London's Daily Telegraph, a group of medical experts who care for the terminally ill in the U.K. say that scores of patients are being wrongly categorized as "close to death" and that their demise is being hastened under increasingly controversial care guidelines introduced in 2004.

Under NHS directives introduced across England, these patients can have liquids and drugs withheld if they are believed to be close to death. Known as the Liverpool Care Pathway, the plan was designed to reduce patient suffering in their final hours. Under the protocols, the decision to declare a patient close to death is made by the entire medical team treating them, including a senior doctor. The guidelines were created for cancer patients but have eventually spread to patients with other conditions.

The darkly worded letter signed by a number of British medical scholars says the protocols are leading to a "national crisis" in patient care. "Forecasting death is an inexact science," they write. Patients are being diagnosed as being close to death "without regard to the fact that the diagnosis could be wrong." The warning comes a week after Britain's Patient Association estimated that up to 1 million patients had received poor or cruel care from the NHS.