News

People with learning difficulties are being moved out of long-stay NHS hospitals into private institutions in the face of government guidance calling for people to receive community care, writes Maria Ahmed.

Private provider Care Principles admitted this week it was planning 70 new beds and said some patients had come from long-stay hospitals.

Another provider, Castlebeck, confirmed it was “expanding existing provision” but refused to comment further.

A source close to the Department of Health also revealed a case where a local authority was “attempting” to refer an individual to a private institution following the closure of an NHS long-stay hospital.

The news comes despite government guidance calling for commissioners to place people “as far as possible in community rather than institutional settings”.

This followed comments from former community care minister Stephen Ladyman criticising councils for “reinventing the long-stay hospital by the backdoor” by placing people in private sector hospitals.

But Yvonne Cox, chief executive of Oxfordshire Learning Disability NHS Trust, said it would be “hard to find a primary care trust which had read [the guidance]”.

While she said commissioners were “beginning” to be aware of the issue, there was a lack of community provision.

Rob Grieg, director of the Valuing People support team, said he was concerned that the developments were occurring despite “categoric assurance” he had received from strategic health authorities that no people were being moved into private institutions when long-stay hospitals closed.

But Dr Simon Halstead, medical director of Care Principles, defended the use of private institutions, arguing that the Valuing People programme “skirted around” the needs of people who were “too dangerous” to be placed in the community.

He said: “Valuing People is full of constructive ideas for the vast majority, but there is a small group whose needs fall outside that frame of reference. We are taking up a client group that would previously have found a home in a long-stay hospital.”

But Greig added: “I do not accept that a significant number of people cannot be supported in the community.”