The discredited Liverpool Care Pathway is still being used in some hospitals despite having been scrapped , a Commons report will reveal . A cancer charity warns that despite an NHS ban , the controversial end-of-life programme is still in use under ‘ a different name ’ . The report comes as police are investigating the death of a second ‘ healthy ’ pensioner at a hospital in Cheshire . The family of Margaret ‘ Nellie ’ Smart , 93 , lodged a formal complaint against Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust , saying they were convinced the mother of 12 died after being dehydrated . A new report has warned that hospitals are still using the discredited treatment method , file photograph . Nurses told MPs that some hospitals have merely ‘ tweaked ’ the end-of-life protocol and given it another title – meaning the ‘ abuse ’ suffered by some frail and vulnerable patients under the Liverpool Care Pathway ( LCP ) may still be happening . The Royal College of Nursing said its members had ‘ not seen a significant difference ’ in the way care is delivered in England since the pathway was withdrawn last year . In a report out tomorrow , MPs on the Commons Health Select Committee are set to urge hospitals to review their procedures to ensure the LCP is not used . They are expected to say that , in far too many cases , it is unclear whether proper discussions have been held with patients and their families . They are also set to call for social care for the terminally ill to be free , to ensure people are not forced to suffer bad deaths because of money worries . An initial police inquiry into the death of an elderly patient has now been expanded after Mrs Smart ’ s family complained about alleged neglect at the same hospital . She died after the NHS ban on the controversial pathway was imposed . Her family believe that the great-grandmother would still be alive if she had not been admitted to Warrington General Hospital for checks following a suspected minor stroke . The Liverpool Care Pathway sees patients sedated , denied food and water and then allowed to die . The Mail uncovered the cruel 'Death Pathway ' on July 16 , 2013 . The trust is already being investigated after Angela Johnson , the daughter of 85-year-old Alice Johnson who died on the LCP shortly before its abolition , made an almost identical complaint weeks earlier . The LCP involves the withdrawal of life-saving treatment . Patients are sedated and most are denied food and fluids . They typically die within 29 hours . Critics said it was a way of hastening death , and – following pressure from the Daily Mail – it was phased out following the Neuberger review two years ago , which found some patients were so dehydrated they were forced to suck on hospital sponges . No hospital was meant to be using the pathway from summer last year . They were instead given a set of five care ‘ priorities ’ by the Department of Health . But in written evidence to the Commons inquiry , the charity Macmillan Cancer Support said : ‘ Some areas have worked well to develop [ new ] guidance ... other areas , however , are still using the Liverpool Care Pathway by a different name. ’ Labour MP Rosie Cooper said that if the pathway was still in use , how can we know whether the ‘ abuses , misunderstandings and lack of education isn ’ t going on under our noses now ? ’ Macmillan told the MPs too many doctors and nurses do not know how to talk to patients and their families about death .
A cancer charity claims the NHS is using a controversial 'Death Pathway ' Patients are being sedated and then refused food and water until death . Studies show that patients on the death pathway last on average 29 hours .