Persons with learning disabilities have been served “Do not resuscitate” notices during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a commission has found.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) recently revealed “evidence of unacceptable and inappropriate” Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation notices (DNACPRs) at the start of the pandemic.
“The blanket and inappropriate use” of DNACPRs, the commission said, “could have had an impact, including potentially avoidable death, on older people and disabled people living in care homes, including those with physical and sensory impairments, people with a learning disability or cognitive impairments such as dementia”.
Last year, the charity Mencap reported that it had received accounts from people with learning disabilities who had been informed that they would not be resuscitated should they receive a COVID-19 diagnosis.
The Department of Health and Social Care has said in response that “it is completely unacceptable for ‘do not attempt CPR’ decisions to be applied in a blanket fashion to any group of people. This has never been policy and we have taken action to prevent this from happening.”
The CQC is currently undertaking a review into DNACPRs during the pandemic that will be published this year.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “This initial report is appalling and indicates disgraceful discrimination towards the disabled.
“Recently, it was reported that those with a learning disability were at far greater risk from COVID-19. This included the age range 18-34, in which people with learning disabilities are 30 times more likely to die from the virus.
“Whether or not DNACPRs have contributed to this shocking death rates, the serving of “Do not resuscitate” notices to patients with learning difficulties is indicative of a broader societal discrimination towards the vulnerable that we have seen elsewhere – including the discriminatory attitude currently being directed towards Down’s syndrome, which SPUC has reported on.”
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