Health chiefs in the Bradford district have defended the use of a controversial end-of-life care pathway for terminally ill patients in the face of negative press nationally.

Eighty-five per cent of trusts nationally, including Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Airedale NHS Foundation Trust and Bradford District Care Trust, have adopted the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) which can involve withholding food, drink and treatment from terminally-ill patients.

Almost two-thirds of trusts that have used the LCP have received financial incentives totalling millions of pounds, according to figures obtained by a national newspaper, including Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust which qualified for £490,000 over two years after doubling the number dying on the pathway to 51 per cent.

The care pathway is supported by leading clinicians and charities such as Marie Curie. It is also endorsed by NICE and the Department of Health as a way to help meet the needs of those who are nearing the end of their life.

However, it has come under scrutiny recently, with reports suggesting hospitals may be employing the method to cut costs and save on bed spaces. Earlier this week, Tory peer Baroness Knight called for an independent inquiry into the pathway.

Health minister Norman Lamb has called a meeting of doctors and patients’ groups to discuss mounting concerns.

One national paper reported how an 82-year-old woman in Blackpool was given two days to live and had feeding tubes removed, but made a remarkable recovery after her family defied doctors’ orders and gave her water through a straw.

Payments are made to hospital trusts under a system called Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN), where the NHS commissioners “reward excellence” by paying trusts to meet care targets.

A spokesman for NHS Airedale, Bradford and Leeds said: “In Bradford and Airedale, appropriate CQUIN payments were made to local NHS trusts to promote good, holistic care for patients at the end of their life.

“This included ensuring more patients died in the place of their choice, promoting staff education around care for the dying and increasing the number of dying patients cared for in line with the Liverpool Care Pathway.

“Ensuring people receive high-quality end of life care services is a priority for us and we have strong local clinical support for implementing the Liverpool Care Pathway as part of this. We support the appropriate use of the Liverpool Care Pathway as a guide to caring for a person with dignity at the end of their life.”

A spokesman for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “The LCP is the gold standard of treatment and care for those patients nearing the end of life. It ensures that these most vulnerable of patients are treated with dignity and respect in their last days and hours. The LCP enables us, as health professionals, to follow a carefully and well-thought out set of guidelines which provides expert guidance so that we know we are carrying out our jobs to the best of our ability and in the best interests of those patients nearing the end of their lives.

“All decisions and medical treatments are made on an individual patient basis and this must be discussed with the patients (where feasible) and their next-of-kin. Patients’ care is reviewed regularly and adjusted accordingly. It is important to stress that being put on the LCP is not a one-way process. If the patient’s condition improves, care is reviewed and the pathway stopped.”

Andrew Catto, medical director at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust said: “Airedale supports the appropriate use of the Liverpool Care Pathway and we would like to reassure our patients and their families and carers that it is not in any way about ending life, but rather about supporting the delivery of excellent end of life care.”

Nicola Lees, deputy chief executive and director of nursing at Bradford District Care Trust said: “We support the appropriate use of the Liverpool Care Pathway as a guide to caring for a person with dignity in the last hours and days of life.”