The dangers of blanket ‘do not resuscitate’ orders

A recent report into ‘do not resuscitate’ (DNR) decisions during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has found they were misused in some cases.

The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) interim review revealed orders on care home patients were at times made on a blanket basis.

Dr Sarah Holmes, a medical director and palliative care consultant at Marie Curie, says the orders should never become “a tick-box exercise.”

Dr Holmes says more open conversations around end-of-life care are needed to prevent similar mistakes repeating themselves in the future.