IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/medlaw/v30y2022i1p60-80..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

DNACPR decisions during Covid-19: An empirical and analytical study

Author

Listed:
  • Hannah Bows
  • Jonathan Herring

Abstract

Considerable concern has arisen during the Covid pandemic over the use of Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation decisions (DNACPRs) in England and Wales, particularly around the potential blanket application of them on older adults and those with learning disabilities. In this article, we set out the legal background to DNACPRs in England and the concerns raised during Covid. We also report on an empirical study that examined the use of DNACPRs across 23 Trusts in England, which found overall increases in the number of patients with a DNACPR decision during the two main Covid ‘waves’ (23 March 2020–31 January 2021) compared with the previous year. We found that these increases were largest among those in mid-life age groups, despite older patients (in particular, older women) having a higher number of DNACPR decisions overall. However, further analysis revealed that DNACPR decisions remained fairly consistent with regard to patient sex and age, with small reductions seen in the oldest age groups. We found that a disproportionate number of Black Caribbean patients had a DNACPR decision. Overall, approximately one in five patients was not consulted about the DNACPR decision, but during the first Covid wave more patients were consulted than pre-Covid.

Suggested Citation

  • Hannah Bows & Jonathan Herring, 2022. "DNACPR decisions during Covid-19: An empirical and analytical study," Medical Law Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 30(1), pages 60-80.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:medlaw:v:30:y:2022:i:1:p:60-80.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/medlaw/fwab047
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:medlaw:v:30:y:2022:i:1:p:60-80.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/medlaw .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.