Elderly wife 'left to die' after hospital put her on end-of-life programme In my mind, once you reach that certain age, they don't seem to care, you're just a number. I suppose it's a good thing if you're terminally ill but not when they give someone no chance to recover when they can. The Liverpool Care Pathway was developed for the care of dying cancer patients but was heavily criticised in 2012, when the NHS was accused of using it as a way to prematurely end elderly people's lives who cost the NHS too much cash. Mrs Dunn was discharged from hospital on April 2, and was taken back to Peacemills Care Home in Nottingham where she is recovering. Mr Dunn, a retired WHSmith worker, criticised the hospital for failing to tell him that they had moved his wife of 40 years onto the Liverpool Care Pathway. He said: "The doctor came to me and said no chance at all that she is going to pull through. I never saw another doctor until the Sunday. "On Sunday I just happened to hear a doctor saying to a nurse 'I'll have to take her off the Pathway."" After questioning the nurse, Mr Dunn said he was told "Yes, I thought you knew." "I first overheard she was on the Pathway from hearing doctors and nurses talking," said Mr Dunn. I wouldn't have known had I not heard them gossiping. No one told me directly. The NHS Trust responsible for the hospital has since apologised for a "breakdown in communication" with Mr Dunn, but he said: "An apology doesn't make things right, they left her to die." Dr Stephen Fowlie, medical director at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "We have apologised to Mr Dunn for the breakdown in communication in his wife's care. The Liverpool Care Pathway is used at NUH as established best practice for guiding the treatment of patients at the end of their life. However this decision should not have been enacted without discussion with Mr Dunn, who arrived at the hospital a short time after his wife. At least 20,000 people with dementia are put on the pathway every year, Parliament was told in January. Norman Lamb, the care services minister, has launched an inquiry into the way the pathway operates following concerns that patients and relations are often not consulted by doctors when people are placed on the scheme. Some 130,000 people are believed to be placed on the pathway every year.