Patients with learning disabilities are being locked away in Peterborough

Locked away indoors, unable to come and go from our homes as we please and prevented from seeing loved ones at our leisure, the coronavirus lockdown has brought an unprecedented curtailment of personal liberties.

But for almost two dozen people with learning disabilities or autism in hospitals in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Trust, such an insular existence is nothing new.

They are among the thousands of people across England stuck in inpatient units – often miles from home – despite continued promises to release them.

Now charity Mencap says the national “human rights scandal” must be ended, and families have spoken out about the abuse, neglect and over-medication their loved ones suffer on hospital wards.

The latest NHS Digital figures reveal 20 patients with a learning disability or autism were in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust wards at the end of February.

This was despite a 2015 pledge from NHS England to shut inpatient units and move people back into the community, where carers would support them to “live healthy, safe and rewarding lives”.

​In Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Trust, 20 new patients were admitted for a ward stay at some point in February, and there were 10 more patients there at the end of the month than three years before.

While NHS trusts and private hospitals run facilities, Clinical Commissioning Groups pay for the care of people from their area. They work collaboratively with local authorities in Transforming Care Partnerships, to prevent people being sent to inpatient units.

But according to Mencap, two of the East of England's six TCPs missed their 35 per cent reduction target at the end of March.

Mencap says patients are often stuck on wards for years at a time, where they can be subject to "degrading treatment with inhumane levels of physical, chemical and mechanical restraint".

It is unclear how long patients in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough have spent on wards, as the figures have been suppressed to protect patient identities.

In the six months to February, patients had been subject to restrictive interventions 100 times – most commonly physical restraint by staff, with 40 incidents recorded.

Mencap says the figures are just the "tip of the iceberg", with many NHS trusts and private hospitals not submitting data on the measures they use against patients.

Chief executive Edel Harris said it is clear not enough is being done to fix the root cause of the problem in social care and housing, and that the Government and NHS must not use the coronavirus crisis as an excuse to "let this domestic human rights scandal continue".

Tim Nicholls of the National Autistic Society fears the crisis could lead to an increased reliance on restrictive measures at a time when routine inspections have been temporarily suspended by the Care Quality Commission.

An NHS spokeswoman said supporting people with a learning disability is a priority, and the number of people in hospital had reduced by a third since 2015.

She added that an independent group had been established to drive improvements in the care of people with mental health, learning disabilities and autism in hospital.