NHS is forced to remind doctors and nurses that they must give water to dying patients

The 'envy of the world', the NHS is at it again...

'Doctors and nurses are having to be reminded to give water to dying patients.

It is being spelled out to them in basic guidelines following concerns that patients are being denied fluids before their deaths.

Experts fear the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway – under which food and drink was withdrawn from the dying – has left a 'hangover' in the NHS a year after it was abolished.

Staff are routinely waiting up to three days before putting the terminally ill on drips or feeding tubes while they debate whether it is in their 'best interests'.

... warned that he still regularly sees severely dehydrated patients on wards
 

Now guidance from NHS watchdog Nice – the first of its kind – expressly tells staff to 'support' dying patients to drink, or get them to suck sponges soaked in water if they are very frail.

It specifically points out that dehydration is 'unlikely to hasten death' and fluids will not 'prolong' the dying process, but in fact ease a patient's suffering.'

More here http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3177974/NHS-forced-tell-doctors-water-dying-watchdog-fears-banned-care-pathway-use.html but probably not on the BBC where the NHS is a substitute for religion.