The U.K.'s Royal College of Physicians found in an audit of 9,000 dying patients that one in five families were not informed of "do not resuscitate" orders, according to The Telegraph.
If this statistic is projected nationally, this means families of approximately 40,000 patients in the U.K. each year are not told when their loved one has a do not resuscitate order in place, according to the report.
The audit also found there was no record of discussing the decision with the patient in 16 percent of cases, according to the report. The audit is part of the U.K.'s National Health Services move to improve end-of-life care at its hospitals, and follows the dismantling of the Liverpool Care Pathway, according to the report. This procedure involved withdrawing food, fluid and medication when patients were close to death, and was done away with in 2014 due to public concerns, according to the report.
An NHS spokesman told The Telegraph:"Although this audit presents a snapshot of end-of-life care within NHS hospitals, there are clear variations in the support and services received across hospitals and areas where improvements must continue to be made."
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