Some care home residents may have died because of blanket DNR orders, says regulator

Some care home residents were wrongly subjected to decisions ruling out attempts at cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in the early stages of the covid-19 pandemic, leading to potentially avoidable deaths, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has concluded.1

Advance instructions not to attempt CPR should a patient’s heart or breathing stop in future should be discussed with patients, if they have the capacity to consent, or with their family, and made on an individual basis. But amid fears that hospitals would be overwhelmed with covid-19 …