NHS and care regulator missed care home abuse of vulnerable patients on multiple occasions

Health watchdogs had no concerns on multiple visits to a private hospital at the centre of a police investigation into the abuse of patients in the months after it had been inspected, The Independent has learnt.

The government said it was “deeply sorry” for the abuse of patients at Whorlton Hall in County Durham, which cares for people with learning disabilities, autism and complex needs.

As first reported by The Independent earlier this month, a police investigation into criminal abuse is currently taking place and 16 staff have been suspended.

Care minister Caroline Dinenage has now said there will be a review of how the Care Quality Commission (CQC), NHS regulators and other groups missed abuse after concerns were raised.

She was responding to an urgent question following a report by the BBC’s Panorama programme, which included secretly filmed footage of staff members threatening and taunting vulnerable patients. Experts called their behaviour “psychological torture”.

Six staff members were also seen joking about times they had deliberately hurt patients.

Whorlton Hall was still rated “good” following an inspection into whistleblowing concerns by the CQC in March 2018. Staff also visited the following July and this April – less than a month before the footage was broadcast.

These separate reviews did not raise concerns, the watchdog told The Independent, although it stressed these were not inspector-led inspections.

One focused on the use of long-term segregation of people with learning disabilities and autism in inpatient care facilities and the other concerned detention under the Mental Health Act.

There were also numerous visits to the hospital from local authority safeguarding teams, NHS commissioners and other groups between January 2018 and May 2019, The Independent understands.

MPs repeatedly asked how concerns were missed.

Ms Dinenage told the Commons the government would review whether the regulatory and inspection framework is working at these type of services.

“We want to know why, after whistleblowing concerns had been raised, was the outrageous culture and behaviour at Whorlton Hall not identified,” she said. “What went wrong?

“Was the oversight of commissioners fit for purpose? Where were the CQC and NHS England in this?”

The government had previously closed inpatient centres for adults with complex needs, which often see patients sent hundreds of miles away from their families, in the wake of a similar scandal at the Winterbourne View hospital in south Gloucestershire.

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However, it has repeatedly missed its targets for reducing the number of beds, blaming a lack of community care provision.

“The fact it is eight years since the Winterbourne View scandal and nothing has changed should be a source of shame for this government,” said shadow health minister Barbara Keeley. “Rather than warm words, the government seems to be getting good at warm words these days and little else. Will you take personal responsibility and say what you are doing to ensure this never happens again?”

Lawyers who represented previous patients of Winterbourne View in their compensation claims said the government’s commitment in the wake of that scandal have not been delivered and this was now more urgent than ever.

“What we saw on Panorama is likely to have been only the tip of the iceberg,” Lindsey Connett, associate at Enable Law solicitors, told The Independent. “In our experience with Winterbourne View a much wider and more established abusive environment than originally thought was discovered during the legal process.”

The CQC has previously apologised to patients for failing to identify and prevent the abuse at Whorlton.

A spokesperson said: “Alongside our own review of what we could have done differently or better at Whorlton Hall, we are keen to contribute to any other pieces of work aiming at understanding how the abuse at Whorlton Hall was missed by CQC, commissioners and the other agencies with oversight responsibilities for this hospital.”