NHS and social services in England have been accused of failing to meet the health needs of people with learning disabilities, according to a government quango.

The Health Service and Local Government Ombudsmen said the standard of care was an “indictment of our society” after reviewing the deaths of six people.

The investigation highlighted the death of one man as a result of failings in his care, and the investigators said a second death “could have been avoided”.

Review
The ombudsmen investigated the cases after they were highlighted by the charity Mencap. It looked into complaints made by the families of the six people who died between 2003 and 2005.

The report documented failings by hospitals, local health bosses, the official NHS regulator and social care services provided by councils, although none of the complaints against GPs were upheld.

It also linked the care of two of the six – Mark Cannon, 30, from Romford, east London, and Martin Ryan, 43, from Richmond, west London – to their eventual deaths.

Ombudsmen concluded failings in the care of two more – Tom Wakefield, 20, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and Ted Hughes, 61, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire – was partly due to the fact that they had learning disabilities.

Care was found to be inadequate in the final two cases – those of Emma Kemp, 26, from Newbury, Berkshire, and Warren Cox, 30, from St Leonards, East Sussex – although the ombudsmen ruled this could not be put down to the way the organisations treated people with learning disabilities.

Despite this, the report said there was enough evidence to suggest the problems were “endemic across the services”. …{+}

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