NHS statistics on people with learning disabilities having shorter life expectancy make 'grim reading'

The NHS has released its latest set of statistics showing people with learning disabilities still have a shorter life expectancy than the general population, despite some of the causes of death being premature and preventable.

This report 'Health and Care of People with Learning Disabilities, Experimental Statistics: 2018 to 2019' once again shows evidence that people with learning difficulties often face poorer health outcomes.

The report shows people with a learning disability aged 0 to 74 years were on average four times more likely to die between 2016 to 2019 than would be expected for people in the general population in the same age and sex group.

It also reveals if you have a learning disability you are less likely to get checked for some types of cancer.

In 2018-19, 5.8 per cent of patients with a learning disability were also recorded as having dysphagia, an increase of 3.2 per cent since 2014-2015.

'These annual statistics always make for shocking reading'

Dan Scorer, head of policy and public affairs at the UK’s leading learning disability charity Mencap, said: “Every year these statistics are released from NHS Digital, and every year, despite some small (and welcome) improvements here and there, they always make for pretty grim reading.

"Whilst these annual statistics always make for shocking reading, the most shocking thing of all would be if, at the end of this parliamentary session, the numbers are still unchanged."

In 2019, campaigners celebrated that their calls for mandatory training on autism and learning disability for healthcare professionals had been heeded.

Mr Scorer added: "However, earlier this month, along with nearly 60 other learning disability organisations, we signed an urgent letter from Learning Disability England to the health secretary, Matt Hancock, calling for action to be taken to ensure that the training is developed to the standards we know are required to solve this crisis. We are still waiting for a response.”

The NHS report shows males with a learning disability have a life expectancy at birth of 66 years. This is 14 years lower than for males in the general population.

Females with a learning disability have a life expectancy of 67 years. This is 17 years lower than for females in the general population.

The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training in Autism

Paula McGowan has been an active campaigner in the battle to introduce mandatory training on autism and learning disability for healthcare professionals.

Four years ago, her 18-year-old son Oliver who had a mild learning disability and high functioning autism died in a Bristol hospital in 2016. Oliver died after being administered anti-psychotic medication, despite he and his family telling staff not to give him the drugs due to reactions in the past and having never been diagnosed with a mental health condition.

As a result of years of Ms McGowan fighting for mandatory training for all NHS staff, the government announced last November they were funding the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training in Autism.

Ms McGowan told homecare.co.uk: “I believe that autistic and or learning-disabled people are treated differently due to subconscious bias and prejudice.

“They are not given equal timely health care as the rest of the public which has resulted in over 1200 preventable premature deaths amongst just learning-disabled people alone.”

Ms McGowan said: “We do not have any data on premature death amongst autistic people and I imagine this is a much higher figure amongst this group of people.”

’The learning disability mortality review ‘is not fit for purpose’

She added: “We have the learning disability mortality review, but the way it stands at the moment, it’s simply not fit for purpose, we have an enormous backlog of deaths waiting to be investigated and worse is that the enormous amount of deaths have not reduced at all.”

A department of health and social care spokesperson said: “People with learning disabilities should have the same standard of health care as everybody else, yet they often face poorer health outcomes and shorter life-spans.

“To increase transparency, we have asked NHS England to routinely publish local performance data on the services for people with learning disabilities.

“We are also taking action to address recommendations set out in the third Learning Disabilities Mortality Review and will be publishing our formal response in the coming weeks”.

You can find out more about Oliver’s Campaign by clicking here

To access the NHSD statistics click here

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