NHS 'too quick to resuscitate acutely-ill'

Some of the most frail elderly patients are suffering "distressing" deaths because hospitals are too quick to try to resuscitate them, a watchdog says.

The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death reviewed the care given to 585 acutely-ill patients who ended up having a cardiac arrest.

The watchdog concluded that cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) had wrongly become the default setting.

It said assessing if resuscitation was necessary should become standard.

Dominic Hughes reports.