People living in care homes not treated well.
Published: Friday, 13th August 2021
This week we heard about more incidences in hospitals in the UK where the CQC have inspected them and found that people living there are not being treated well. In Staffordshire at Eldertree Lodge managed by Coveberry Limited, a the CQC, which is the Care Quality Commision saw CCTV footage of staff abusing patients in their care. The footage showed staff pulling and pushing patients to move them into seclusion and slamming doors on them. The unit was also found to be 'filthy' and patients had little positive interaction with staff.
In Birmingham, Wast Hills, a private hospital caring for people with learning disabilities and Autism has received another damning report from the CQC rating it inadequate and put into special measures. The unit is privately owned by Cygnet who are responsible for the Whorlton Hall abuse scandal uncovered by the BBC in 2019. Cygnet NW Limited also run a mental health unit in Sheffield providing child and adolescent mental health services for male and female adolescents aged between 13 and 18 years old and low secure services for women aged over 18. CQC has rated this unit as requiring improvement in all areas of the inspection and in the past has had an 'Inadequate' rating but has remained open despite Louise Haigh Sheffield MP urging ministers to stop commissioning services from Cygnet. This is an organisation that generated a profit after tax of £13.2m in 2018.
And lastly, in Cornwall, St Erme Campus was put into special measures after CQC found that the unit was again 'filthy' and lack of staff meant patients were being put at risk.
Sheffield Voices is upset and angry at the continued abuse of people residing in these facilities. We feel that Government should not be commissioning services where providers have history of bad management and abuse of people with learning disabilities, and we feel that people should only stay in these units if there is absolutely no alternative, and that people should not be left lingering without proper discharge plans and treatment for years and years. Shefield Voices also feels that all care homes should have people with lived experience of learning disability and Autism visiting them to support people to self-advocate and that voices of people should be listen to and taken seriously.
Published by : Andrew Smith
