Coronavirus: Deaths in mental health hospitals double as Covid-19 spreads

Care Quality Commission reveals scale of Covid-19 deaths in mental health hospitals as NHS England refuses to publish information about learning disabled and autistic patient deaths

Deaths in mental health hospitals have doubled compared with last year – with 54 fatalities linked to coronavirus since March began.

Mental health hospitals have now been warned by the care watchdog that they must take action to protect vulnerable patients.

The Care Quality Commission regulator said 106 deaths were recorded in mental health hospitals between 1 March and 1 May, compared with 51 over the same period in 2019.

Fifty-four of these deaths are from confirmed or suspected coronavirus infections.

The CQC has now written to all mental health hospital providers highlighting its fears over the spread of the virus in secure hospitals and units, and to patients who are under Mental Health Act restrictions in the community.

The figures were published as NHS England separately refused to make public the weekly data it receives from hospitals and learning disability units about the deaths of patients with learning disabilities. It said the data would be published in 2021, sparking outrage from charities and politicians.

Labour’s shadow care minister Liz Kendall said: “This is extremely worrying and shows Covid-19 has now reached mental health units. Families and the wider public deserve to know what is happening, and why.

“The full weekly data must now be immediately published, to identify how big the problem is and how fast it is spreading, so services can take all necessary action to keep people with learning disabilities and autism safe.”

Dr Kevin Cleary, deputy chief inspector of hospitals at the CQC and its lead for mental health, said: “That a number of people detained under the Mental Health Act have died from suspected or confirmed coronavirus is a particular worry as these are some of the most vulnerable people in society.

“We want to be clear what we expect from providers in term of their management of coronavirus and we will be asking some providers to urgently confirm the action they are taking to manage coronavirus outbreaks.”

He said the CQC would be reviewing the data to understand what may be driving the infections and whether other action could be taken.

Deborah Coles, from the charity Inquest, told The Independent: “The refusal to publish the data points to the historical longstanding failure to provide detailed information about deaths of people in the care of the state in mental health and learning disability settings.

“People in closed institutions are completely reliant on others for their care and treatment. At a time of no external scrutiny, because the CQC is not inspecting units and family visits are restricted, there is the ever-present risk of abuse and ill treatment. These organisations have clear human rights obligations and it is unacceptable that there is just no transparency about what is happening.”

She added: “The other key issue is the indirect impact of Covid-19 on therapeutic services, use of restraint, medication and seclusion and self-inflicted deaths. They need to publish more comprehensive data than numbers disaggregated by gender, race, age, provider. Such a dramatic increase in deaths is deeply concerning and we need to understand the context. Data is meaningless without analysis.”

On Thursday, Harriet Harman MP, chair of parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights, wrote to health secretary Matt Hancock demanding the government publish data on the deaths of people with learning disabilities and autism.

She said: “We are very concerned about the lack of transparency over the number of those who are autistic and/or have learning disabilities who have contracted and have died from Covid-19.”

The letter added the committee wanted to see this data ahead of a hearing it was planning to hold on 18 May.

Campaigners have threatened to launch legal action against NHS England to seek a judicial review over its refusal to publish data.

Dr George Julian told The Independent the campaign group, including the mother of 18-year-old Connor Sparrowhawk, who died in an NHS unit run by Southern Health Foundation Trust in 2013, was planning to crowdfund money from next week to support a legal case.

She said: “The main argument is that NHS England hold data about deaths of learning disabled and autistic people that is reported to them weekly, that they’re refusing to publish. We consider that decision is irrational and discriminatory, given this information has been published in relation to various other protected characteristics such as age, sex and ethnicity. We will also consider whether NHS England are in breach of human rights obligations.”

Public Health England is expected to carry out analysis of deaths of those with learning disabilities and autism as part of its wider work looking at why some groups are more susceptible to severe Covid-19 infections than others.