Mencap report on 'shocking' deaths sparks inquiry into NHS institutional discrimination in treatment of people with learning difficulties

Mencap report on 'shocking' deaths sparks inquiry

Extract:

"Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, has announced an independent inquiry into allegations that six patients died in NHS hospitals as a result of institutional discrimination.

Ms Hewitt said she had been "shocked" to hear details of the cases in a report from Mencap, the charity for people with learning disabilities, and promised the inquiry would be held "without delay".

The cases included a 43-year-old man who went without food for 26 days after suffering a stroke, a 26-year-old woman who was denied treatment for cancer because doctors thought she would be uncooperative and a 30-year-old man with a broken leg who developed pneumonia.

All the patients had severe learning disabilities and communication problems. Mencap said they shared common factors and called for an investigation into the "avoidable" deaths. It said there was "widespread ignorance and indifference" in the NHS to people with learning disabilities.

The report follows a 2004 inquiry by the charity, which exposed the unequal health care given to people with learning disabilities.

The new cases had exposed "underlying bad practice", the charity said. None of the NHS trusts was identified in the report because the complaints are still being investigated by the Healthcare Commission, the NHS inspectorate. Certain ones had been upheld and others referred back to the individual trusts, it said."