DNACPR Decisions: Coronavirus

(asked on 9th June 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many deaths of people with do not resuscitate orders have been attributed to covid-19 as the cause of death in the last 12 months.


Answered by
Nadine Dorries Portrait
Nadine Dorries
This question was answered on 17th June 2021

The Department is clear that learning disability should never be a reason for a Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) decision and that blanket DNACPR decisions for whole groups of people are completely inappropriate.

The Department does not hold data centrally on the numbers or basis for DNACPR decisions. In October 2020, the Department asked the Care Quality Commission to review how DNACPR decisions were made during the COVID-19 pandemic, including for people with a learning disability. The report, published on the 18 March, looked at how DNACPR decisions were made in the earlier stages of the pandemic. The 2020/21 General Medical Services contract Quality and Outcomes Framework now includes a requirement for all DNACPR decisions for people with a learning disability to be reviewed. The fifth annual report of the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review programme published on 10 June 2021, reported that in 2020, of the people with a learning disability who were reported as dying from COVID-19, 81% had a DNACPR decision.

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