1:28pm July 14, 2013

➸ No review board into early deaths of patients with learning disabilities

And, on that note:

The confidential inquiry, set up at the end of the last Labour government, found that patients with a learning disability experience delays in diagnosis, delays in treatment, lack of basic care and poor communication by doctors and nurses.

Carried out by Bristol University academics and funded by the Department of Health, the inquiry “highlighted the unacceptable situation in which people with learning disabilities die, on average, 16 years sooner than people without learning disabilities". Almost two-fifths – 37% – of deaths of people with alearning disability were due to them not getting the right care.

The inquiry team had asked the government to set up a national review board on the deaths of people with learning disabilities, and to examine a random selection of deaths as well as those of people who die young or who die unexpectedly.

However, in their response to the inquiry, ministers have refused to create such a body, arguing that it needed to weigh up the costs and benefits of the agency.

Instead the government has said it will give “greater voice" to people with learning disabilities and support the spread of personal budgets so patients could purchase better care.

ETA: That’s not The Onion. That’s our lovely current government in the UK.

Not surprised there either. Hard to get proper medical care in the U.S. as a DD person too.

Notes: