leaving hospital has happened too quickly with people returning home sooner than they would under normal circumstances, and sometimes with emergency readmissions following soon after- wards. Over half (57%) of the learning disability nurses surveyed by Mencap agreed that health- care professionals have not always had enough time to ensure the right support is in place for patients with a learning disability upon discharge. The impact of remote consultations: The widespread shift to remote GP and other medical consultations means that GPs can sometimes miss when a person with a learning disability is very unwell, either due to communication issues or because they attribute the person’s symp- toms to their learning disability. This can cause delays in accessing healthcare and in some cases may have contributed to serious illness, and may be part of the reason that some people died.
Long before COVID-19, Mencap’s Treat me well campaign – which launched in February 2018 - has aimed to transform how the NHS treats people with a learning disability. Today’s report shows that the COVID pandemic has made this even more critical. Mencap is calling for:
• The government to prioritise vaccination for all people with a learning disability, as people with a learning disability have died from COVID at up to 6 times the rate of the general population
• Clearer healthcare guidance that specifically addresses the needs of people with a learning disability
• Reasonable adjustments to be made where possible - these can be a matter of life and death
• DNACPRs to be reviewed and removed from the records of patients who did not give informed consent, or where proper decision making did not take place
• An urgent review to take place into the impact of remote consultations on people with a learning disability
• The forthcoming inquiry into the handling of the pandemic to look closely at why so many people with a learning disability lost their lives
• Prioritising training to ensure that all healthcare workers are confident in providing flexible, personalised care for people with a learning disability within their area of specialty.
Edel Harris, Chief Executive of the learning disability charity Mencap, said: “With widespread inequality as a backdrop, when the healthcare sector was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic it resulted in a range of new and worsened problems for people with a learning disability. NHS staff have been working incredibly hard and doing everything possible to keep people safe but this is against a backdrop of inadequate and confusing guidance that has ultimately failed to protect people with a learning disability. “Despite knowing the healthcare inequalities that people with a learning disability already face – and knowing early on that people with a learning disability were being disproportionately affect- ed by the crisis – the UK Government has failed to produce guidance that adequately considers their needs. Because of this, there has been a failure to tackle the existing systematic lack of inclusion.
“Health inequalities can no longer be ignored. The current crisis is a wake-up call that must
result in urgent system change to address the shocking levels of premature death and health inequalities that people with a learning disability continue to face. And this change must start with prioritising people with a learning disability for the COVID vaccine.” To find out more about Mencap’s ‘My Health, My Life’ report, visit:
mencap.org.uk/myhealthmylife. Visit:
www.mencap.org.uk.
For advice and information about learning disability and Mencap services in your area, contact Mencap’s Learning Disability Helpline on 0808 808 1111 (10am-3pm, Monday-Friday) or email
helpline@mencap.org.uk
Ability Needs Magazine 19
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