Panorama care home abuse investigation prompts government review

Social care minister asks regulator to investigate after BBC programme revealed systematic abuse at Winterbrook View unit in Bristol The government has ordered a review of the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) failure to investigate a whistleblower’s account of the systematic abuse that left vulnerable people to face months of physical and verbal abuse at a Bristol care home. Paul Burstow, the social care minister, has asked the regulator to investigate similar services to the Winterbourne View unit, in Hambrook, near Bristol, where a culture of abuse prevailed despite tip-offs from staff and repeated inspections – the role of the CQC, which is the sector regulator, and the local authority. A committee of MPs will also question CQC chiefs over their responsibilities. Stephen Dorrell, the chair of the Commons health committee, said a scheduled hearing with CQC bosses on 22 June will now focus on the organisation’s failings in the case. The systematic abuse of residents in the unit was documented by an undercover cameraman and broadcast on the BBC’s Panorama on Tuesday. Staff pinned residents to the floor and forced one into the shower fully dressed and then outside until she shook from cold. Residents were slapped and taunted, and one was teased about a suicide attempt. Experts told the programme what they had seen amounted to “torture”. Immediately after the broadcast, four of the staff were arrested. The Commons health committee will also launch a more wide-ranging inquiry into the commissioning of social care in the autumn. The inquiry will examine how the state provides care facilities for the elderly and vulnerable adults, including the current crisis with major care provider Southern Cross , which has slashed its rent payments in an effort to keep its 750 residential homes running. The future care of 31,000 elderly residents is in jeopardy if the firm collapses. The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “We are talking about a specific case that is clearly very shocking. Paul Burstow has asked the regulator to undertake a series of inspections of similar services and a thorough examination of the roles of both the CQC and local authorities in this case. “What we need to do is look at the circumstances surrounding this particular case. Clearly, there have been failures in this case, and we need to look at that before drawing any conclusions.” He added that the government was “monitoring very carefully” the situation with Southern Cross. Dorrell told the Guardian that the inquiry would look broadly at the commissioning process, saying: “The questions will be about how can these stories of abuse arise. “There was Panorama yesterday, but also the report last week on care of the elderly in NHS hospitals, all the issues around Southern Cross and the CQC in particular. “We are talking about 70% of patient load of the health service that is people with long-term needs and conditions, and so often we focus on waiting times for elective operations. This is a far bigger issue.” Responding specifically to the situation at the Bristol care home, he said: “I do think, in general, these services are better than they were a generation ago. “But there are still far too many failures. We have to address the reason for those failures. 30 years ago, the majority of this care was provided in large long-stay institutions which were themselves open to incidences of abuse. The vast majority are better now, but there are too many cases where it falls down.” Dorrell said he would be asking how the commissioning of such services worked. Castlebeck, the firm behind Winterbourne View, was charging more than £3,000 per resident a week. “One of the groups of people with difficult questions to answer arising out of the specifics of this situation is the people who authorised the expenditure of that money,” he added. “Someone had to sign the cheque that the care home operator was being paid to provide a service of £3,000 per week. I presume the majority of those cases were paid for with public funds. The people who signed the cheque have a duty to make certain that standards are of an adequate nature.” The CQC and Castlebeck both issued full apologies for their respective failings over the Winterbourne View unit. The government has commissioned the economist and broadcaster Andrew Dilnot to conduct a wide-ranging inquiry into the funding of care and support for elderly and disabled adults. He is due to report in July. The autumn inquiry by the health committee in the Commons will focus on his findings as well as the specific cases highlighted by the Panorama programme, Southern Cross and the recent report by the CQC on the lack of care for the elderly in hospitals. The prime minister’s spokesman said there had been discussions between Southern Cross and the Department of Health “for some time” over contingency funding planning. Asked about financial support in the light of council funding constraints, the prime minister’s spokesman said Southern Cross, landlords and those with a stake in the business needed to put in place a plan to ensure the company was on a firm footing. “That process is happening,” he said. “Our role is to ensure we keep in close contact with what is going on and keep monitoring that situation, and we will do what we need to do to ensure there is protection for anyone affected by this.” On the issue of bailout, he insisted the government would make sure “there is protection in place”, adding: “It may well not be in the interest of residents to move them, it may well be in their interest to keep them in the same place. “But we have to look at that very carefully … our interest is to make sure these people are cared for effectively.” Health policy House of Commons Liberal-Conservative coalition Long-term care Social care Disability Health Polly Curtis Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 1, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.