The neglect of the learning disabled

 

Nothing changes.

Here`s Paul Kelso, health correspondent, Sky News:

"At least 40 people with a profound learning disability or autism have died while admitted to `barbaric` secure hospitals the government has promised to close since 2015, a Sky News investigation has found."

"The deceased, nine of whom were under-35 when they died, were being held as in-patients in assessment and treatment units (ATUs), controversial hospitals considered inappropriate for some of the most vulnerable people in society..."

"Figures show the total fell by 80 people in three years, from 2,395 in March 2015 to 2,315 in September this year, while the number of children has increased, from 110 in March 2015 to 230 in September."

"Latest figures show 60% of patients in ATUs have been admitted for more than two years and 16% for more than a decade."

"Figures released to Sky News under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that reported uses of restraint, categorised as including the use of medication, seclusion of patients, and physical restraint including face-down `prone restraint`, have soared in the last two years..."

"Sir Stephen Bubb says money should move from the NHS to the social care pot."

"`There are deaths of people in these institutions, some of them unexplained. We know there are significant problems and there will be at some stage another scandal, and yet we know what we need to do`."

"`The idea that in the 21st century you lock people up, you restrain them, you use prone restraint, you hold them down, I think is disgusting, it is barbaric and it is unacceptable, and it needs to be made unlawful`."

https://news.sky.com/story/40-people-died-in-barbaric-secure-hospitals-the-government-pledged-would-close-11540038