Hundreds of disabled people still stuck in hospitals in Northern Ireland, even though they were promised community placement 14 years ago

From The Belfast Telegraph in Northern Ireland:

Over 250 long-stay patients with learning disabilities remain in specialist hospitals in Northern Ireland 14 years after the Department of Health decided resettlement into the community would provide them with a better life, a new report has revealed.

The department originally set a target for the resettlement of all long-stay patients from the three learning disability hospitals — Muckamore Abbey (pictured), Longstone and Lakeview — by 2002.

But seven years on from that date 256 remained in the hospitals in March this year — three quarters had been there for 10 years or more and almost 10% for 50 years or more, according to a critical report from the Northern Ireland Auditor General Kieran Donnelly.

The Department of Health, he said, had now set a new target of 2013 for no-one to remain “unnecessarily” in hospital.

It must make achieving the new target a funding priority despite a shortage of money, said Mr Donnelly.

Various deadlines for the completion of resettlement after the 2002 failure had been set and missed, said the report. It added: “While we accept that targets can be varied for a number of reasons, in our view the continual revision of time targets has hindered the momentum of the resettlement process”. Health boards and trusts told the Audit Office the delays in resettling patients was primarily down to a lack of funds for alternative forms of provision.

“Within Northern Ireland expenditure on leaning disability services per head of population has been significantly lower than elsewhere in the United Kingdom and as a result progress in resettling patients has been much slower,” said the report.

The department's view was that relative expenditure on learning disability services in Northern Ireland was reflective of the £600 million under-funding of health and social care services when compared to England, it added.

The report said: “We acknowledge that the department faces real difficulties in meeting current demand for resettlement. However, if the latest target for full resettlement is to be met, learning disability must be given a higher funding priority.”

Northern Ireland has by far the highest proportion of people with learning disabilities tucked away in long-stay hospitals — 222 per million of population compared to 15 per million in England and Wales and 163 in Scotland.

In the 10 years to 2002 the number of long-stay patients in learning disability hospitals in Northern Ireland fell by almost 50% from 878 to 432.

Of around 200 resettled since almost 55% went to either a nursing home or residential home because appropriate alternative accommodation was limited.

As a result those patients who required and requested supported living options within the community remained in hospital.

The report said: “In future, we recommend that resettlement plans not only ensure that the physical care needs of individuals are met but also enhance the level of integration of people with learning disabilities into the community, enabling them to make friends and have access to community services.”

Back in 2002 the department initiated a major wide ranging and independent review of the law, policy and provision affecting people with mental health or learning disability needs at what became known as the Bamford Review. It made a series of recommendations which if fully complied with would, the Audit Office said, have cost implications which would have to be weighed up against the wider health benefits.

The report said the department considered that, with careful and sympathetic management, resettlement could be successful for all patients regardless of the length of time that they had spent in hospital.

It highlighted a review showing that of 157 patients resettled in the five years to March 2008, only two were so unsettled in their new environment that they were returned to hospital.