Learning difficulty patients suffer "poor" care

03/12/2007 08:15

LONDON (Reuters) - Patients with learning difficulties receive poor standards of care and sweeping changes are needed, the government’s health watchdog said on Monday.

Even in the best cases, the safety and quality of care given were not up to the standard expected of modern services, the Healthcare Commission said in a national audit.

"Care is not personalised, living environments and activities are few," said the commission’s chief executive, Anna Walker.

In the first review of its kind, the commission discovered poor planning of care, sub-standard staff training, widely varying procedures and a lack of management scrutiny across England.

It called for "sweeping and sustained changes" to bring services for people with learning difficulties into the 21st century.

The audit was ordered after the watchdog found cases of abuse and neglect of learning disability patients at Sutton and Merton Primary Care Trust and Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust.

Inspections at 154 NHS and independent organisations found no evidence of any physical abuse.

But inspectors did refer six services to local authorities because of concerns about the care of individuals or overall standards of care.

"I am relieved to say that we have not found another situation like the one we found in Cornwall," said Walker.

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"This report, however, does paint a bleak picture. Services for people with learning difficulties are not generally unsafe but they are poor.

"These services are regularly neglected and too often old-fashioned and institutional."

More than 4,000 people receive help from 638 individual bodies across England.

"No-one would get away with this level of service to other patients," said Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb.

"In many instances they have been treating these people as second-class citizens, which is completely intolerable."

Care Services Minister Ivan Lewis said any mistreatment was unacceptable.

"People with learning disabilities deserve to be treated with dignity and respect," he said.

He said the NHS organisations identified by the audit would have to deliver action plans setting out what they are doing to address shortcomings.

(Writing by Tim Castle; Reporting by Andrew Hough)

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