The apology issued this week by a hospital trust, for placing a “do not resuscitate” (DNR) order on a patient with Down’s Syndrome, has highlighted serious concerns about health care for vulnerable patients.
It is shocking that the family of Andrew Waters was not consulted, or informed, and found out about the DNR, only after he was discharged from hospital in Margate, Kent, in 2011.
Andrew Waters, 53, has since died and the DNR did not have a bearing on his death. To bring the issue to public attention the BBC should be commended for reporting the case, after getting a court order protecting Mr Waters’ anonymity lifted, with the consent of his family.
It is not right that family members, or carers, should discover a folded paper note among a bag of belongings after a patient is discharged, indicating they had been looked after in hospital subject to a “do not resuscitate” (DNR) order, without the full consultation of the family.
East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust has admitted breaching Andrew Waters’ human rights.
The learning disability charity, Mencap, says that the decision taken by healthcare professionals to put a ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ order on Andrew Waters highlights “the huge health inequalities many people with a learning disability face each day.”
Other statistics which also raise concerns about health care have also been published this week by the BBC, revealing that at Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, between April 2011 and March 2015, 10,306 people had died – 1,454 deaths were not expected, 272 were treated as critical incidents, of which just 195 (13%) were treated by the trust as a serious incident requiring investigation (SIRI).
However, the likelihood of an unexpected death being investigated depended hugely on the type of patient.
For those with learning disability the figure was 1%.
Responding to this report, Jan Tregelles, chief executive of Mencap, said: “1,200 people with a learning disability are dying avoidably in the NHS every year. This is a national scandal.
“One of the key recommendations of the government commissioned ‘Confidential Inquiry into premature deaths of people with learning disability’ was the importance of proper analysis into the deaths of people with a learning disability.
“Only then we will be able to identify the causes of avoidable deaths and ensure that they are properly addressed.
“Mencap’s ‘Death By Indifference’ campaign has highlighted the lack of value and lack of priority placed on the lives of people with a learning disability. This is a very real crisis that is happening to people with a learning disability and their families across the UK right now.
“When the final report is published we will be looking very carefully at the recommendations, as we remain extremely concerned about the lack of progress on this issue by government and the NHS.”
For more information about the healthcare inequalities people with a learning disability face see Mencap’s Hear my voice campaign
The post Blog: Time to address ‘huge health inequalities’ affecting people with a learning disability appeared first on U Can 2 Magazine.
