Mencap statement regarding the CQC report on Basildon NHS Trust

Monday 30 November 2009

Mark Goldring, chief executive at learning disability charity Mencap, said: 

"The horrific failings at Basildon Hospital show that lessons are still not being learnt by some health professionals and highlight an appalling catalogue of neglect of people with a learning disability.

"Mencap's Death by Indifference report, published in 2007, contained the shocking stories of six people with a learning disability who died unnecessarily due to ignorance and neglect within the NHS.

"Since Mencap's report, the four additional cases from Basildon that Mencap referred to the CQC clearly show again the widespread failure by some health professionals to provide the proper duty of care to people with a learning disability.

"These deaths we know are just the tip of the iceberg. Health professionals need to put existing policy into practice and lessons need to be learnt so that people with a learning disability do not continue to die at the hands of the NHS."

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For more information, contact Tara Rayment in the Mencap media team on 020 7696 6937 or tara.rayment@mencap.org.uk

Mencap's Death by Indifference report

The report contained evidence that people with a learning disability were dying unnecessarily due to institutional discrimination in the NHS. Death by Indifference contained six cases where people had died unnecessarily due to widespread ignorance and neglect within the NHS.

For copies of Mencap's Death by indifference report visit: www.mencap.org.uk/deathbyindifference