Royal Stoke University Hospital<\/a> with a clot that was cutting off the blood supply to his leg. They couldn\u2019t operate or offer an amputation because he\u2019s frail and old.<\/p>\n\u201cEssentially, it was a case where they couldn\u2019t do anything for him. So they said they\u2019d send him home with end-of-life palliative care. His discharge letter said he had weeks to live.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite being told he would given palliative care on June 13, 2025, Geoffrey and his family were left shocked after the hospital discharge team quickly overturned the decision on June 17.<\/p>\n
Kathlyn explained: \u201cThey basically went into my dad\u2019s room while he was on his own and told him that he didn\u2019t qualify for palliative care because he wasn\u2019t going to die fast enough. Apparently it was because they thought he\u2019d live beyond two weeks. They also said the medication he was on was deferring the gangrene.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was the first time my dad fully realised he was terminal. He was very distressed. The staff on the ward were horrified with the decision. One of the nurses was in tears with him. We appealed the decision twice while he was on the ward, but we were unsuccessful. Some doctors we spoke to said this was a recurring issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we asked them what is their kind of definition for when palliative care should be prescribed, their response was that it should be given when a patient is no longer eating or drinking. So you\u2019re talking literal days before they die.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kathlyn believes the situation was handled in the “most inhumane and unempathetic manner possible”.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had two reactions to this news,\u201d she said. \u201cI was extremely upset with the decision and I was extremely angry with how they chose to tell him. The way they just walked in and announced it without any family there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re facing losing the prospect of losing a family member, you\u2019re already dealing with an awful lot of things. And this lack of compassion, this treatment that you\u2019re just a line on a spreadsheet that can be cut, is just completely lacking in humanity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just callous. And now these cuts are essentially going to mean that more people who would qualify for palliative care aren\u2019t qualifying. And it means that people are going to have to fund the costs of care themselves, despite being entitled to receive support. It\u2019s just another burden on people in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB said it is aware of Kathlyn\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n
But they have insisted that Geoffrey has been appropriately assessed on multiple occasions, and that he does not meet the nationally-set criteria for the End of Life Home Care Pathway.<\/p>\n
An ICB spokesperson said: \u201cThe Palliative Care Coordination Centre continues to monitor the patient via community nurses who are continuing to visit the patient daily to provide at home care and support.<\/p>\n
\u201cShould any deterioration in the patient\u2019s condition be observed another referral will be made immediately. We would like to issue our best wishes to the family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Get daily headlines and breaking news emailed to you – it\u2019s FREE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kathlyn Gadd has hit out at \u00a3306m NHS cuts to Staffordshire servicesRoyal Stoke University Hospital(Image: Stoke Sentinel\/BPM Media)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[38884,105,4348,211,86492,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-314214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-daybreakers","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-nhs","12":"tag-royal-stoke-university-hospital","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114964216137828129","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Royal](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2_sto_royal-stoke-university-hospital.jpg\")
Royal Stoke University Hospital(Image: Stoke Sentinel\/BPM Media)<\/p>\n