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Feb 23, 20212 min read

‘Do not resuscitate’ notices given to patients with learning disabilities during Covid-19 pandemic

by Sophie Donne


It has recently come to light that patients with learning disabilities, such as Down Syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, and more, are suffering discrimination in the form of ‘do not resuscitate’ orders, also known as DNRs. Normally issued to patients who are too frail to benefit from CPR, the notices have been given without the patients’ or their families’ consent and sometimes without their knowledge.


This practice was criticised in 2020 by the learning disabilities charity, Mencap, and an investigation was led by Care Watchdog. The Care Quality Commission issued a statement describing that this practice had led to a rise in potentially avoidable deaths within an already vulnerable community.


The coronavirus pandemic has had a particularly disastrous effect on this community, accounting for 65% of deaths of people with learning disabilities in the first 5 weeks since the 3rd national lockdown began. Due to the increased stress on the NHS, drastic cuts have been made to social care support. Combined with the new DNR notices, the image portrayed is that this vulnerable group has been marked as less deserving of sufficient care and have been neglected. Some have likened the practice to eugenics and social cleansing.


The rollout of the vaccine has also proved problematic to patients with learning disabilities. Many sufferers don’t find it difficult to communicate their symptoms, leading to GPs not having the correct details of conditions on record. This means that some of our society’s most clinically vulnerable people are not being treated as such and are having to wait longer for their vaccine.


With 6 in every 10 Covid-19 deaths being a sufferer of these disabilities, according to the Office for National Statistics, it is vital that this group is prioritised and recognised as being vulnerable. Professor Martin Green OBE, chief executive of Care England, has urged the UK government to remove the arbitrary distinction between patients that suffer from severe disability and those who suffer from mild disability, to put all variations into Group 4 (the most clinically vulnerable). He has also requested that each case is reviewed carefully in order to prevent blanket NDRs from being issued to all people with learning disabilities, regardless of their personal circumstances.



Ipswich Mencap is also running a petition to prevent NDRs from being issued to vulnerable patients without their, or their family’s, consent: http://chng.it/pRGbRhHKCF



 

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