People with learning disabilities and autism being treated ‘intolerably’ in hospital, MPs warn

Jeremy Hunt says current treatment of vulnerable adults is ‘matter of national shame’, writes Conrad Duncan

Former health secretary is among the MPs calling for immediate action on ‘restrictive’ long-term institutional care (PA)

People living with learning disabilities and autism are facing “intolerable treatment” at inpatient care facilities and should be able to be looked after at services close to their homes, MPs have warned.

A report by the Commons Health and Social Care Committee found that immediate action was needed on the use of “restrictive practices”, such as the use of physical restraint, by staff at inpatient facilities, with MPs describing the current situation as a scandal.

The MPs called on Tuesday for a ban on admissions to long-term institutional care for people with learning disabilities and individuals with autism, as the average length of stay at such facilities is six years.

They added that current practices should be replaced with “person-centred services” that only admit people for short periods of time and allow them to stay near their homes.

Jeremy Hunt, the committee’s chairperson, said it was “a matter of national shame” that so many people with learning disabilities were still being detained at facilities, 10 years on from the Winterbourne View scandal.

In 2011, a BBC Panorama investigation uncovered physical and psychological abuse suffered by people at a private hospital in Hambrook, South Gloucestershire.

An independent report published in 2012 following the scandal called for fundamental changes in how care for vulnerable adults is commissioned and monitored.

“Despite commitments by governments over the years, the totally inadequate level of community provision means that autistic people and people with learning disabilities are wrongfully admitted to inpatient facilities and detained for a shocking average of six years,” Mr Hunt said.

“With two thousand people remaining in such institutions, it is time to recognise that a voluntary approach to reducing the numbers has failed and long-term admissions should now be banned with alternative community provision set up in their place.”

The Conservative former health secretary added that his committee had heard “harrowing” details about the use of physical restraint, long-term segregation and seclusion at facilities.

At least 2,055 people with either autism or learning disabilities are currently being held in secure institutions, according to the report.

The committee has also called for mandatory independent reviews of deaths for all people with autism or learning disabilities in inpatient and community settings.

It warned that in “too many incidences” families and friends have struggled to get independent reviews into deaths of loved ones and added that more work needed to be done to make sure any lessons learned from such reviews are shared across the care system.