Nearly 50 people have died in long-stay hospitals caring for people with autism and learning disabilities, it has emerged.
Care minister Caroline Dinenage revealed there have been 45 deaths in the hospitals, known as assessment and treatment units (ATUs), since March 2015.
There were also a further four deaths in the hospitals, but officials can’t say when these occurred.
Shadow social care minister Barbara Keeley called it a “national scandal” that people are dying in ATUs
Dinenage revealed the figures in response to questioning from shadow social care minister Barbara Keeley.
In addition to the deaths, it emerged that 105 people saw their discharges from controversial long-stay hospitals delayed in April.
Delays were linked to a lack of housing and problems with social and health care support and funding. Problems over care in the person’s own home or a residential home also caused delays.
2,245 still in long-stay hospitals
In total, 2,245 people were in the hospitals at the end of April. More than half, 58 per cent, have been there for more than two years.
Keeley called it a “national scandal” that people are dying while detained in the institutions.
Under its Transforming Care initiative, the UK government vowed to close at least 35 per cent of beds in the hospitals by March this year.
Failed to hit the target
But it failed to hit the target and now aims to halve the hospital levels seen in 2015 by 2023/24.
This will mean cutting numbers back to about 1,440.
In November, Dinenage announced that deaths in ATUs were being reviewed to ensure there was “nothing untoward”.
Panorama set to reveal more care failings
Meanwhile, eight years on from BBC Panorama’s landmark exposure of abuse at the private Bristol hospital Winterbourne View, the programme is set to reveal fresh care failings.
Panorama goes undercover inside a hospital for vulnerable adults. It will reveal abusive staff mocking, taunting and intimidating patients in a programme tomorrow (Wednesday 22 May 2019).
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson told Autism Eye: “We are determined to reduce the number of people with learning disabilities and autistic people who are inpatients in mental health hospitals. Significant investment in community support has already led to a 22 per cent reduction since 2015.
“The NHS is committed to reducing inpatient numbers by 35 per cent by the end of March 2020. Through the Long Term Plan, we will reduce numbers even further by investing in specialist services and community crisis care and giving local areas greater control of their budgets to reduce avoidable admissions and enable shorter lengths of stay.”
Related:
- ‘Abject failure’ of hospital plan
- Independent medics sent into hospital
- Hospital placed in special measures
- Huge surge in hospitals using restraint
- Social workers aim to cut hospital stays
- Hospital brought out of special measures
- Still stuck in mental health hospitals
- Spotlight on hospital care
Published: 21 May 2019
