NHS staff witness neglect of patients with learning difficulties

Almost half of doctors and a third of nurses said they had witnessed a patient with a learning disability being treated "with neglect or a lack of dignity or receiving poor quality care", according to a survey by a leading charity out today. The opinion poll of 1,000 NHS staff by Mencap, which campaigns on behalf of people with learning disabilities, shows a pattern of poor care for some of society's most vulnerable patients. Almost four out of 10 doctors said that people with a learning disability are discriminated against in the NHS – and 46% said they received a "poorer standard" of healthcare than the rest of the population. There are about 1.5 million people in Britain with learning disabilities, the best known is Down's syndrome. The findings are a source of concern for Mencap – especially after its landmark report in 2007 highlighted six cases of people with a learning disability who died unnecessarily in NHS hospitals. This led to a rare joint review by the by the health service and local authority ombudsmen which chastised hospitals and councils for "significant and distressing failures" that led to inadequate care for patients because of their disabilities. The public bodies were fined £120,000. Since then the charity has received more accounts of tragic cases from families and carers. Christine Papalabropoulos said her daughter Tina, who suffered profound learning disability, died in a hosptial bed in January 2009 after, she says, nurses and doctors were complacent and rude. Papalabropoulos said she implored first GPs and then hospital staff to administer proper treatment – especially after her daughter was diagnosed with "aspiration pneumonia". But, she says, the family was ignored and preemptorily dismissed. Tina had spent most of her 23 years in bed and could not talk or walk. The trouble began for the family when it took four days to get Tina examined by a doctor despite her running a high temperature and being in obvious discomfort. One out-of-hours GP told Tina's mother he would not come to the house because "what could he do?". "That was his answer to a mother's cry for help," said Papalabropoulos. In the end a GP did come to the house and sent Tina to the local hospital in Basildon saying she clearly showed signs of aspiration pneumonia, which is a leading cause among patients who cannot adequately protect their airways. "It took us four days to see a consultant and all the while no one told us not to feed our daughter which meant her lungs were filling up with liquid from her stomach. We were killing our daughter. But no one told us anything," said Papalabropoulos. "The day before our daughter died we met the consultant. He told us she could die. My husband just broke down in tears". The health service ombudsman is considering a complaint against Basildon and Thurrock University hospital's NHS foundation trust, which earlier this month fined £50,000 for health and safety lapses that were a "significant cause" of the death a severely disabled man who caught his head in the rails around his bed. The hospital's director of nursing Maggie Rogers said the family had met with senior hospital staff to discuss the "issues raised". "Mr and Mrs Paplabropoulos have engaged Mencap to support them in working with the hospital. The Basildon trust told the Guardian it had written to Mencap in response to the Paplabropoulos' complaint several months ago and it was awaiting a response. A Department of Health spokesperson said "improvements have been made in delivering care for people with learning disabilities but there is still much to do. Health is one of three priorities for the government's learning disability strategy."