Coronavirus: Data on deaths in mental health and learning disability units will now be published, NHS announces

NHS England medical director pledges transparency on learning disabled and autism deaths from Covid-19

The NHS will next week begin to publish the numbers of people who are dying from coronavirus in mental health and learning disability units, the government has announced.

England's national medical director Stephen Powis told the Downing Street daily press briefing that the figures would be published on an "ongoing basis" after calls to paint a clearer picture of the problem.

It comes as figures from the Care Quality Commission showed a sharp increase in deaths among mental health patients compared to last year.

Asked by The Independent whether the numbers could be made public, he replied: "Yes, I can commit that we will publish that data.

"We've been looking at how we can do that; we publish deaths daily, we're looking at how we can report on those groups and I can commit that from next week we'll be publishing data on learning disabilities, autism, and mental health patients who have died in acute hospitals and we will do that on an ongoing basis."

NHS England had faced criticism from charities and campaigners as well as MPs over its refusal to release details about the impact of Covid-19 on patients with learning disability and autism despite receiving weekly information from hospitals.

The care regulator the Care Quality Commission released new data on Thursday showing a doubling in the number of mental health patients who died in hospitals or under Mental Health Act restrictions in the community.

The watchdog said 106 deaths were recorded in mental health hospitals between 1 March and 1 May, compared with 51 over the same period in 2019.

Fifty-four of these deaths are from confirmed or suspected coronavirus infections. The CQC has written to all mental health hospital providers to ensure they are taking steps to protect patients from infection.

Labour’s shadow care minister Liz Kendall wrote to health minister Helen Whately calling for the data to be published after NHS England said it would only be revealed in an annual report of learning disability deaths in 2021.

NHS England receives a weekly update from the national learning disability motality review programme based at Bristol University.

Deborah Coles, from the charity Inquest, told The Independent on Friday: “People in closed institutions are completely reliant on others for their care and treatment. At a time of no external scrutiny, because the CQC is not inspecting units and family visits are restricted, there is the ever-present risk of abuse and ill treatment. These organisations have clear human rights obligations and it is unacceptable that there is just no transparency about what is happening.”

She added: “The other key issue is the indirect impact of Covid-19 on therapeutic services, use of restraint, medication and seclusion and self-inflicted deaths. They need to publish more comprehensive data than numbers disaggregated by gender, race, age, provider. Such a dramatic increase in deaths is deeply concerning and we need to understand the context. Data is meaningless without analysis.”

The care and treatment of people with learning disability and autism has become a major issue in recent years after repeated studies showing patients have a higher mortality than the general population. Repeated care scandals in hospital units has also increased the focus on the number of people detained in units.

In December, an analysis showed more than 350 people with special needs had been detained in hospitals for more than 10 years. The social care charity the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group (VODG) said that at the current rate of discharges, half the 2,250 people in hospitals currently will still be confined by 2030, which it labelled a “national disgrace”.