NHS Disability Care 'Failures' Slammed In Report

Care for people with learning disabilities has come under fire after a report found the NHS and councils failed to provide appropriate health and social services care.

The Health Service and Local Government Ombudsman ruled that one man died as a result of these failings and the death of a second man could have been avoided.

Tom Wakefield, from Cheltenham, had multiple and severe learning difficulties, and died at the age of 20.

The report stated the NHS and a council had failed to provide appropriate care from the health board and social services.

Paul Wakefield, the 20-year-old's father, said the errors were "torture" for their family.

Mr Wakefield said his son experienced worsening stomach pain and weight loss over the period of a year-and-a-half, but medics ignored the signs.

"Tom's increasingly anguished reactions to pain were simply seen as bad behaviour," he said.

Mr Wakefield, whose son died of pneumonia and reflux problems, said a plea for his son to have an endoscopy was not taken up.

Tom’s death was one of six highlighted by the charity Mencap, and led to the joint report.

The mother of a Down's syndrome sufferer who died after going without 26 days of food on an NHS ward wants those responsible brought to justice.

Martin Ryan, 43, from Richmond, south London, who had severe learning difficulties and epilepsy, was unable to swallow and suffered a stroke.

But a "serious breakdown in communication" among staff at Kingston Hospital in south west London meant he went without food for weeks.

Mr Ryan died on December 21, 2005, having by that time become too ill to undergo surgery to have a feeding tube inserted.

The report - entitled Six Lives - found it was "likely" the death of Mr Ryan could have been avoided had his care and treatment not fallen so far below the required standard.

Ann Abraham, the Health Service Ombudsman, also found the Kingston Hospital NHS Trust gave him less favourable care because of his disability.

She added: "The recurrence of complaints across different agencies leads us to believe the quality of care in the NHS and social services for people with learning disabilities is at best patchy, and at worst an indictment of our society."

The report highlighted "distressing failures in the quality of health and social care," Abraham said. No investigation could reverse the mistakes, "but if NHS and social care leaders take positive steps to deliver improvements in services, this may bring some small consolation to the families and carers of those who died," she added.

(JM/BMcC)