PUBLISHED: 17:32 EST, 15 October 2013 | UPDATED: 17:32 EST, 15 October 2013 The study rated key aspects of care including support for families and control of symptoms breathlessness (posed by model) The controversial Liverpool Care Pathway has little clinical benefit for dying patients, according to a major new trial. Based on findings published in The Lancet, the researchers suggest that any initiative to replace the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) in England should be 'grounded in scientific evidence' and tested in controlled trials before it is implemented. The LCP was jointly developed by the Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool and the Royal Liverpool University Hospital in the late 1990s with the aim of rolling out the best practice of hospices to hospitals, to provide uniform, high-quality, dignified care for dying patients in the last days or hours of life.
@highlight
Study compared care provided under the Italian version of the LCP and hospitals that do not implement the program as end of life care in Italy
@highlight
Found 'no significant differences' in quality of care between the wards
@highlight
Suggested that any initiative to replace the LCP in England should be 'grounded in scientific evidence' before it is implemented
'A decade after widespread uptake, the results of this, the only adequately powered study of @placeholder so far have not shown clinically meaningful differences for patients - the ultimate measure of useful health policy.'