NICE has published new guidance on the care of patients in critical care during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The new guideline on critical care states that all patients with confirmed COVID-19 must be assessed on the basis of “frailty” when healthcare professionals are making decisions about whether to admit a patient in need to critical care.
“Responding to the new NICE guidance, Edel Harris, Chief Executive of the learning disability charity Mencap, said:
“These are unprecedented times and our NHS is under extreme pressure. But people with a learning disability and their families are deeply troubled that the latest NICE guidance for NHS intensive care doctors could result in patients with a learning disability not getting equal access to critical care and potentially dying avoidably. These guidelines suggest that those who can’t do everyday tasks like cooking, managing money and personal care independently – all things that people with a learning disability often need support with – might not get intensive care treatment. That’s why we urge NICE to include specific guidance on learning disability to make it clear that healthcare professionals should not judge patients on their cognitive ability when making life or death decisions.”
Read the NICE guidelines in full online here.
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