A watchdog group said patients in the UK with learning disabilities who contracted the coronavirus were given unnecessary orders not to “resuscitate”.
Mencap, a watchdog group aimed at helping people with learning disabilities, said they had received several reports from patients with learning disabilities coronaviruses who were told they would not be resuscitated if their health worsened, according to a report by The Guardian..
“During the pandemic, many people with learning disabilities faced shocking discrimination and obstacles to access to health, with inappropriate notices of Do Not Attempt to Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) placed in their files and cuts made in their social support, ”Edel Harris, chief executive of Mencap, told The Guardian.
Orders not to resuscitate may have cost lives during last year’s pandemic, according to The Care Quality Commission, a health regulator in the UK, said.
According to the news source, it is not clear why these orders were placed with people with intellectual disabilities. Orders not to resuscitate are generally given to people who do not support CPR.
New evidence also suggests that people with learning disabilities are more likely to experience serious negative health consequences of the virus, according to The Guardian.
The UK is again blocked, while the country continues to fight the new, more infectious British variant of the coronavirus virus.
In the first five weeks of its most recent blockade, the National Health Service, the UK’s publicly funded health system, found that 65 percent of COVID-19 deaths are related to people with disabilities, the Guardian reported.
And despite evidence of disproportionate effects, there has been debate in the country about whether those with learning disabilities should be a priority to receive vaccines.
“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 afraid and wondering why they were left out” said Harris. .
The Hill contacted Mencap for comment.