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remembrance
Don’t count, don’t care?

The rising numbers of deaths wrought by coronavirus in care
homes shows vividly the low value still being placed on some
people’s lives, writes Jan Walmsley

housands more deaths were added Hidden hospital deaths
to the Covid-19 figures from late Yet they, too, were places of death. Some,
TApril – those who had died in “care like Harperbury Hospital in Hertfordshire,
homes”. This generic term is used by the had their own crematoria. Many had their
press and officialdom to describe a place own cemeteries. They were not often
that is not a home but is outside hospital. (that we know of) settings of deliberate
From international comparisons rapidly murder although this was not unknown
assembled (Comas-Herrera, 2020), it (just read Allan Mayer’s 2008 novel
appears that up to 70% of deaths in some Tasting the Wind).
parts of the world occurred in care Yet the ravages of infectious disease Entrance to the unmarked mass burial site for
homes. Although possibly flawed, this seen in “care homes” this year were patients of the former Leavesden Hospital
data is quite shocking, suggesting present in 1970 in overcrowded,
widespread “care-less-ness” about older understaffed and dirty wards, where In the same way, underpaid and
and disabled people. around 50,000 people lived. Tuberculosis underappreciated care home staff in 2020
People with learning disabilities were a in particular wrought havoc. have been struggling, behind closed
subset of this care home population. I have We do not know how many people died doors, to provide adequate care for
no idea how someone supported by a behind closed doors back then – just as in disabled and older residents during a
personal assistant who died outside hospital 2020. In 2016, the Mazars inquiry into pandemic, with neither medical support
was counted, if at all. What I do know is practice at Southern Health NHS nor protective equipment.
that, contrary to official guidance, some Foundation Trust (Care Quality South Ockendon and Ely were not
youngish people with learning disabilities Commission, 2016) showed that unique – there were many other death
were automatically labelled do not unexpected deaths of older or disabled scandals in hospitals.
resuscitate (DNR), regardless of individual patients at the trust were not Why remember this awful history now?
potential to benefit from treatment. investigated. The 1969 inquiry into abuse Because there is absolutely no room for
What I also know is that blindness to at Ely Hospital near Cardiff noted an complacency and believing that eugenics
the deaths of people with learning “unduly casual” approach to investigating was a Nazi aberration, safely buried in an
disabilities has a long history, and this deaths (DHSS, 1969: para 78b). increasingly distant past. It is and always
has consequences. Finding out about these deaths is far has been alive and well and lurking in
It was with this in my mind that I read from straightforward. Many records were our society.
Susanna Shapland’s moving piece When lost when hospitals closed. Most that A crisis like coronavirus shows vividly
Mass Murder was Social Policy in the last remain are subject to the widely quoted how some people’s lives are undervalued.
issue. Let us not fool ourselves with the 100-year closure rule, as they contain No one was counting in the past and,
comforting thought that this did not patient names. However, a potent source unless we shout really loudly, no one will
happen here. It did – not in the stark way of information is the series of public count now. n
death was visited upon disabled people in inquiries of the 1970s. ● Thanks to Pamela Dale for her thoughts
Nazi Germany, but by a combination of One of these – the 1974 inquiry into and insights on this topic
neglect, failure to treat, care-less-ness South Ockendon Hospital – was prompted
leading to accidents and even, at times, by an enrolled nurse who resigned after Jan Walmsley is an independent researcher
outright murder. there were seven deaths in two months
Just as many countries enthusiastically on the ward where she worked. She told References
supported Jewish extermination, so they the inquiry: Comas-Herrera A, Zalakain J, Litwin C, Hsu AT,
also joined in, less obviously, with a desire Lane N, Fernandez-Plotka J-L (2020) Mortality
to reduce the “inferior stocks” and the “It was getting worse on W [a ward]. Associated with COVID-19 Outbreaks in Care
“useless eaters”. Best known probably are The patients appeared to be dying one Homes: Early International Evidence. https://
the 20th century policies of sex after another… It is how they went. tinyurl.com/rgq7747
segregation in institutions to prevent How they were treated when they were Care Quality Commission (2016) Report on
“breeding”, and the legalised sterilisation dying or sick. This is what I am Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust
DHSS (1969) Report of the Committee of
of thousands in many countries – not, complaining about.” DHSS (1974): Inquiry into Allegations of Ill-Treatment of
formally, in the UK. para 345 Patients and Other Irregularities at the Ely
In Germany, there are now memorials. Hospital, Cardiff. Cmnd 3975. London: HMSO
There are none here. The large She was on night duty, expected to look DHSS (1974) Report of the Committee of
Jan Walmsley institutions have been airbrushed from after 60 older patients single handed, some Inquiry into Allegations Of Ill Treatment Of
with complex, serious health conditions
the landscape. Few even have anything to
Patients at South Ockendon Hospital. HC 124.
tell people that they were there.
and many with severe learning disabilities. London: HMSO
www.cl-initiatives.co.uk Community Living Vol 33 No 4 | Summer 2020 21