As the queen prepares to address the nation on Sunday 5 April, some people are asking a difficult question. Because with the growing scandal around social care amid the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, theres a huge discrepancy between whats happening to the royal family and many of our elderly or disabled relatives. Its called a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate).

As Red and Green Action tweeted:

A DNR notice is something medical professionals use. It can be issued with or without a patients consent; the latter when the patient is deemed unable to make a decision themselves under the Mental Capacity Act. In short, a DNR is placed on a person when doctors think trying to save a persons life would be unsuccessful. It also happens when attempts at resuscitation may leave the person more sick or disabled than they originally were; brain-damaged, for example.

For some people, DNRs are controversial. There have been countless cases where families did not know a loved one had a DNR. Moreover, they pose ethical questions about the value of human life in some situations. But since the coronavirus pandemic took hold, DNRs have sparked yet more outrage.

As BBC News reported, one Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in Brighton and Hove has written to care homes for elderly people. It stated that:

frail elderly people do not respond to the sort of intensive treatment required for the lung complications of coronavirus

We may therefore recommend that in the event of coronavirus infection, hospital admission is undesirable.

It also told care homes to:

check they have resuscitation [DNR] orders on every patient

In other words, the CCG seems to be suggesting care home residents who get coronavirus should be left to die. But this story doesnt appear to be isolated. There have been reports of similar things happening in Wales and Leeds. Moreover, it also seems that increased use of DNRs is not just restricted to elderly people.

As the Guardian first reported, a Welsh GP practice sent out a DNR request letter to all coronavirus high-risk patients. It targeted people with incurable cancer, neurological conditions, and untreatable heart and lung conditions. The use of neurological conditions in the letter is of particular concern. This is because official government guidance states that high-risk neurological conditions include:

Some people with illnesses such as motor neurone disease will indeed see a worsening of quality of life if doctors attempted resuscitation. There have been court cases in the UK where motor neurone patients have fought for their right to die. But for many, including learning disabled people, their conditions are not immediately life-threatening. So it seems odd at best that doctors would be issuing this advice. But at worst, it seems scandalous that non-life threatening conditions have been merged with terminal ones.

On social media, the cases of people claiming doctors have issued DNRs without patient consent are growing:

Andrew Cannon highlighted the fact that doctors were placing DNRs on people even when they legally had mental capacity:

And as Helen Ashby said:

Its important to note that some of the reasoning behind these DNRs is that the NHS will not cope with many more severely ill people. Much of this is probably due to a decade of government cuts to services and staff. And while at present, this may seem like its only isolated cases, the stress its already putting on some families is unacceptable.

Damian Wilsons daughter is disabled. As he wrote for RTUK:

In the UK, DNR paperwork effectively throws the choice back to the patient, urging them to choose to die rather than risk being a burden to the health service.

Before the pandemic, Wilson decided to take legal control of his daughters financial affairs, but not her health ones. Now, because he does not have a say over her health, he is concerned about what will happen to her if she gets sick with coronavirus. As he wrote:

if my daughter contracts Covid-19 and is admitted to hospital, then who will make the decisions needed on her behalf? Legally, we, her parents, have no say about how she will be treated. We may not even be allowed to be with her.

So, it seems Downing Streets adviser Dominic Cummings alleged comments about letting the old people die have taken on another sinister twist. And while we may not know whether the Queen has a DNR notice on her, we can probably make an educated guess she hasnt. Coronavirus may not discriminate about who it infects. But the UK healthcare system certainly does over who has a right to live or die if they get it.

Featured image via UK Home Office Flickr

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Some elderly and disabled people may be culled, yet the queen will keep on going - The Canary