§ Lord Morris of Manchesterasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether their policy with regard to the monitoring of "Do not resuscitate" notices in National Health Service hospitals has changed since the Written Answers by the Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 6 July (WA 156). [HL3828]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathAs indicated in the reply given on 6 July (WA 156), the Department of Health has since published, on 5 September, a Health Service Circular Resuscitation Policy (HSC2000/028) which asks Chief Executives of National Health Service Trusts to regularly audit clinical practice in resuscitation decision-making and to report clinical audit outcomes in their annual clinical governance report. The circular also asks trust chief executives to ensure that a non-executive director of the trust is given designated responsibility on behalf of the trust board to ensure that a resuscitation policy is agreed, implemented, and regularly reviewed within the clinical governance framework.
The Secretary of State for Health has also asked the Commission for Health Improvement to pay particular attention to trusts' resuscitation decision-making processes during their reviews.