A hospital trust is to prioritise people with learning disabilities for treatment.
Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust will make the learning disabled a treatment priority as part of plans to get on top of a backlog of work after coronavirus.
Paula McGowan said her heart leapt with joy after learning people with learning disabilities would be prioritised for treatment
The trust says long waits disproportionately affect people with learning disabilities, as well as some from ethnic minorities.
Based on need
They will get priority for non-emergency treatment.
A meeting of the trust’s public board of directors earlier this year heard how people with learning disabilities would get priority after “cancer and urgent patients”.
Officials heard the decision was based “around health inequalities and need based”.
Treatment delays exacerbate inequality
The latest statistics show life expectancy is 25 years lower for learning disabled people. Lengthy waits for treatment could exacerbate this inequality.
In West Yorkshire, the trust said it prioritised 66 patients on waiting lists.
Paula McGowan has campaigned for better training for NHS staff on learning disabilities.
Her 18-year-old son Oliver, who had a learning disability, died after he suffered an allergic reaction to antipsychotic medication.
The family say they had earlier warned medics of Oliver’s allergy.
More than 1,200 preventable deaths
In a message, McGowan highlighted the historic inequalities faced by learning disabled people. She said there were over 1,200 preventable deaths each year.
Doctors have also placed illegal “do not resuscitate” orders on their medical records, she said.
McGowan wrote that her “heart leaps with joy and gratitude” over the trust’s move.
Other hospitals urged to follow suit
Dan Scorer is Mencap’s head of policy.
He said coronavirus has further “exacerbated” the health inequalities endured by people with learning disabilities. Covid was eight times more likely to kill them.
Scorer wants to “strongly urge” other hospitals to also prioritise people with learning disabilities.
Related:
- Shocking deaths of learning disabled
- Learning disabled die from lack of help
- Coronavirus may decimate services
- Social care cut when it was needed most
- Virus deaths in care more than double
- Activists demand virus death figures
- At high risk of death, but denied tests
- Fightback against virus law care cuts
- Keep seeking medical help, doctor urges
- Councils ‘free to abandon disabled’
- Children’s social care ‘in crisis’
- Social care cash won’t end crisis
Published: 23 August 2021
