National Health Service: In-Patients with Learning Disabilities

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Excerpts

Monday 18th January 2016 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the number of avoidable deaths of National Health Service inpatients with learning disabilities since 2011.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Prior of Brampton) (Con)]

My Lords, this Government are committed to reducing the level of avoidable deaths. The learning disabilities mortality review, commencing this year, is piloting local reviews of premature deaths of people with learning disabilities. The Care Quality Commission will also be undertaking a wider review into the investigation of deaths in a sample of acute, mental health and community trusts.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for his Answer. He is clearly aware of the recent reports which have shown that there have been many avoidable deaths of people with learning disabilities within the care of the National Health Service. Indeed, some estimates have put it at more than 1,000 deaths per year. He is aware that Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of NHS England, has very recently written to NHS and foundation trusts asking them to carry out a self-assessment of avoidable deaths. Given that the NHS seems to have a real problem with providing decent care generally to people with learning disabilities, how confident can we be that this self-assessment will actually identify people with learning disabilities who have suffered avoidable deaths within its care?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, this is a very important question. The fact that so many people with learning difficulties die much younger than people without them is of concern to everybody in this House. The review being conducted by Sir Bruce Keogh, to which the noble Lord referred, is a self-assessment tool. It is due to report quickly—by April—so is a short-term attempt to get the bottom of this. It is not a long-term effort, which would be much more comprehensive. We have two forms of looking at avoidable or excess deaths. One is the standardised system, which is a statistical basis for looking at the number of excess deaths. The other looks at avoidable deaths and is done by looking comprehensively at a wide sample of case reviews to give us a much more accurate picture of what is really happening.