The BBC’s panorama programme has uncovered video evidence of patients who have autism and learning difficulties are being mocked, taunted and intimidated by abusive staff. Undercover BBC filming showed the staff mistreating the patients at Whorlton Hall, County Durham.
BBC have released this documentary eight years after the programme exposed the scandal of abuse at Winterbourne View, another specialist hospital.
Two male staff members singled out a women patient for particular abuse, this woman was scared of men and the staff would tell her they will bring men in the room in an effort to keep her quiet.
Whorlton Hall has 17 beds and cares for many who are sectioned under the Mental Health Act. The site had at least 100 visits by official agencies in the year before the undercover filming took place.
All patients have now been transferred to other services and the hospital is closed down.
BBC was at Whorlton Hall undercover for two months and aired the shocking footage on Wednesday showing the abuse and neglect by staff towards patients.
Whorlton Hall is currently run by Cygnet Health Care. Cygnet have suspended 16 staff members. It has said it is “shocked and deeply saddened” by the allegations.
A spokesman for the firm said: “ We are shocked and deeply saddened by the allegations made against members of staff at Whorlton Hall, part of the Danshell Group, which Cygnet recently acquired. We take these allegations extremely seriously.
“We have suspended all the members of staff involved, simultaneously informed all relevant authorities, including the police, who have now instigated an inquiry and we are cooperating fully with their investigation.”
A spokesman for Durham Constabulary said: “As this is an ongoing inquiry, we are unable to comment further at this time, other than to repeat that our immediate priority has been to work with other agencies to safeguard the victims at the centre of the allegations and their families.
“The investigation is at an early stage and is expected to take some time to complete”.
BBC
Care minister Caroline Dinenage told the House of Commons she was “deeply sorry that this has happened”.
The Care Quality Commision which inspected the hospital in 2017 and gave it a ‘good’ rating, apologised last night for not picking up on the abuse. The footage showed a staff member referring to Whorlton Hall as a “house of mongs”. A colleague calls a patient a “fat c**t”, while another patient was told her family are “f***king poison”.
Mark Rowland, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation, said: “Eight years after Panorama uncovered systemic abuse of people with learning disabilities at Winterbourne View, it defies belief that this is still happening.
“After Winterbourne View, the government promised to reduce the number of people with learning disabilities who are kept in institutions for long periods.
“Yet more than 2,000 people are still in this hellish situation – more than half of whom have spent more than two years as inpatients.”
The Department for Health and Social Care said: “We are working to ensure more people return home from hospital as soon as their treatment has finished and significant investment in community support has already led to a 22 per cent reduction in these mental health inpatient numbers since 2015.”
Lewis Walker
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