Hi,

Has anyone else experienced a lack of support and understanding from NHS staff with regards to the above.

I have had a situation over the last two days where one of our residents was admitted to hospital due to chest pain / low blood pressure. The person was escorted by one of my staff and recieved a high level of treatment. However the moment the staff member had to leave and return home the hospital staff were straight on the phone demanding that I send an other staff member to spend the night with him due to him being "aggressive". I was unable to comply with this request due to staffing levels at which point the nurse in question became even more demanding.

As a former nurse at the same hospital I was shocked by the lack of understanding / empathy towards the resident. It appeared that because this person had learning disabilites nobody wanted to spend the time to even attempt to settle the situation down. I appreciate how busy wards are however surely there is still a duty of care on the ward staff to provide the care that the individual needs.

As it happens the situation has been resolved and an apology was recieved from the matron over the area in question.

As I explained to the matron given that the NHS has been known to discharge people to early on ocassions would it be excepted practice for me to ring the ward and demand that they send me a nurse to look after the person if I felt that the discharge was to early. Of course it would not be acceptable and it would never even have entered my head.

Has anyone else expereienced similar problems / issues?

DonnyMan

Hi DonnyMan

I think it's an ongoing problem. There was a report by the DRC last year which found institutional discrimination against people with learning disabilities in the NHS. We did a story on it.

Yes this is still an ongoing problem and institutional discrimination is rife but not only within the NHS. Other organisations working on behalf of this vulnerable group often condone this type of treatment and Im glad to see you did not and even got an apology from the NHS staff. Ive worked with others who have witnessed people with intellectual/learning disabilities being given the wrong diet (normal as opposed to soft ...prone to choking), not being given food because they did not/could not make a choice,unwashed,unshaved etc and did nothing but moan about it to each other. nothing was raised at ward level and even when the manager of the social care unit became aware still nothing was done. The same staff would moan and complain about having to go with the individuals to GP appointments because "they dont listen to you"...."hes not interested " etc etc. The same individual was discharged with absolutely no care package (required physiotherapy) with about 1 hours notice.  yet the managers of these services allowed this to happen and the staff were left to get on with what was already a challenging situation.