People with learning difficulties are still ordered not to resuscitate (DNR) in England, despite widespread condemnation of the practice, leading to an investigation by the Care Quality Commission (CQQ).
Charity, Mencap, told The Guardian that many with learning disabilities were told they would not be resuscitated if they became ill with COVID-19 without their or their family’s consent in January.
A DNR is a medical order that instructs healthcare professionals not to do CPR if the patient stops breathing or the heart stops.
Mencap CEO Edel Harris told The Guardian: “During the pandemic, many people with learning disabilities faced shocking discrimination and obstacles to accessing health, with inappropriate Do Not Try Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) warnings placed in their files. and cuts made on their social support care networks. “
According to NHS figures, about 1,220 people with learning disabilities have died of coronavirus since February 2020, including 40 of them during the week ending January 29, 2021.
This is after a Public Health England report in November 2020 found that people with learning disabilities had a mortality rate 6.3 times higher than the general population during the first wave of COVID-19.
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Those aged 18 to 34 with learning disabilities are 30 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than others their age, the report added.
Harris told The Guardian: “It is unacceptable that within a group of people hit so hard by the pandemic, and that even before Covid died an average of 20 years younger than the general population, many were scared and wondering why that were left out. “
The learning disability mortality review report (LeDer) revealed that 65% of people with learning disabilities who died of coronavirus in the first wave had a mild or moderate disability.
Those with severe or profound learning disabilities are the sixth in line for the vaccine. People with mild or moderate learning disabilities are not prioritized. Mencap asked for that to change.
He estimates that including those with mild or moderate learning disabilities would be just an additional 100,000 to 200,000 people.
In 2018, the British Medical Journal estimated that 1,200 people with mental disabilities die preventably from the NHS each year.
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