Case example 1. Clinical care compromised by lack of awareness of the specific needs of people with learning disabilities15
| When a woman was admitted to hospital, her medical notes on admission described her as ‘mute, aphasic and having learning difficulties'. A plan was made to stop any treatment and to transfer her back to the nursing home for end-of-life care. The nursing home manager and her general practitioner disagreed with the decision not to treat her, believing that this was on the basis that the hospital team lacked awareness of her needs and any reasonable adjustments that could be put in place for her. They insisted on the Mental Capacity Act being followed, and a best interest meeting was held that afternoon, attended by the hospital doctors involved, the nursing home manager, the hospital learning disability liaison nurse and four members of the person's family. Active treatment was resumed as a result of the decisions made, and the person had improved greatly within 48 hours. She was discharged 2–3 weeks later and lived for more than another year before dying peacefully at home. |