Aspies For Freedom

Mental health bosses quit posts
Three directors of the Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust have resigned from the trust board.

The announcement comes as an inquiry into allegations of abuse and neglect at Budock Hospital near Falmouth draws to a close.

There is no indication that the resignations are linked to the investigation into the trust, which deals with mental health in Cornwall.

A health watchdog is due to report its findings into the allegations soon.

Hospital overspend

Trust Chief Executive Lezli Boswell told board members on Monday that Medical Director Ken Wood was standing down, but would continue with his clinical work.

She also said that Mark Steer, director of nursing and service governance, had resigned from the board, but would continue in his role improving services for people with learning disabilities.

Blaise Mallon, finance director, has notified the trust of his intention to step down and will serve for a further six months under the terms of his contract.

The resignations are the latest high-profile departures of senior members of the county's health service managers to hit the NHS within a week.

Last week, the chief executive of the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust resigned after 13 years in the post over the hospitals trust's current overspend of nearly £16m.

Brian Milstead, one of the longest serving chief executives in the NHS, said he accepted responsibility for the financial situation of the trust.

Patients 'suffer extensive abuse'
Five members of staff at the hospital have been dismissed
A damning report has raised serious concerns about the treatment and care of people with learning disabilities.

Several centres were inspected by the Healthcare Commission and Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI).

The report recommended Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust is put in special measures for "widespread institutional abuse" of patients at Budock Hospital.

Patients' families said they were disgusted at what happened. Changes have been made, the Cornwall NHS said.

Checks will now be carried out on all services in England.

The report said the scale of abuse in Cornwall was the worst the inspectorates had come across.


I cannot and will not attempt to justify what has happened, as it is inexcusable
Lezli Boswell, chief executive

Abuse case raises care concerns

During the investigation, teams of inspectors found evidence of staff hitting, pushing, and dragging people who were supposed to be in their care.

There were also reports of staff withholding food and forcing patients to take cold showers.

There were allegations of sexual abuse by fellow residents and one man had his skull fractured in an attack by another with learning disabilities.

'It's disgusting'

People's money has also been misused and the CSCI and Health Commission have referred these cases to the NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service.

The inspectors said some staff were caring and well-meaning but they "lacked understanding and knowledge of best practice".

Russell Bevan, who is 37 and from St Columb Minor in Cornwall, used to share a supported living house with others with learning disabilities.

But when he complained a staff member of the trust hit him, his mother, Pauline Bevan, brought him home to care for him and reported some of the abuse.

She said: "I was absolutely appalled by what has been going on, because I never realised that this had been going on as well as Russel's case.

"I thought Russel was just a one-off case, and I was literally appalled at what was happening.

"I think it's disgusting, because we trust our sons in their care and they let them be abused."

The Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust said there were "no excuses" for the failings in its learning disability services, but stressed some changes have been made.

Charity 'horrified'

Five members of staff from Budock Hospital have been dismissed, a ward has been closed and staff are being retrained.

Chief Executive Lezli Boswell, who took over at the trust in May, has apologised in writing to the carers and service users.

She said: "I cannot and will not attempt to justify what has happened, as it is inexcusable. My job now is to turn the services around."

The report has recommended an outside special measures team should continue to help run Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust for at least another year.

It also calls for an independent review of the trust board, and services for people with learning disabilities to be designed according to individual need.

The national charity Mencap said what had happened was "truly appalling".

Needs 'overlooked'

A joint statement by Anna Walker, the chief executive of the Healthcare Commission and David Behan, CSCI's chief inspector, said the level of abuse in Cornwall was not found everywhere.

However, they called for an inspection programme of all NHS and independent healthcare providers.

"More than a million people in England (2% of the population) are estimated to have learning disabilities" they said.

"It is not acceptable to overlook the needs of these vulnerable people because they rarely capture the headlines, or in some cases are unable to champion their own rights."

The Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, says steps are being taken to ensure it does not happen again.

"The abuse that's been uncovered of people with learning disabilities is an absolute disgrace. It is completely unacceptable," she said.

"The Trust has already taken steps to put things right in Cornwall, now we've got to learn lessons from that and make sure this does not happen again to other vulnerable people."

A statement from Devon and Cornwall Police said the report was being reviewed by a senior detective and a meeting would be arranged with the Healthcare Commission, CSCI and other interested parties to establish if any action needed to be taken.

This hospital faces right onto the back of my old school's playing fields - (Falmouth Community School, Trescobeas site) - we had to walk past it whenever we had to do PE at the top field.

The place is a dump, if you peer in the windows it's full of cold corridors and plain plastered walls and doesn't look much cleaner than the outside. Also they seemed to "misplace" people from there on quite a regular basis and they'd end up searching the school grounds to round them up and take them back.

I remember being forced to apologise to the manager of the place after one of the kids threw a big blob of mud at the window - I (In my honesty) stopped and and gawked in a sort of "dude, what'd you do that for?" way, one of the nurses rushed to the window and started pointing and swearing at me since I was the one in line of sight and shouted for one of the teachers to grab me, had a weeks detention for it and had me stand up in front of the entire school just about and apologise for sullying "their good name". Heh, after I was diagnosed Aspergers I even had a teacher tell me "They should lock me up in there with the rest of the psychos"

The school was no better for inflicting mental damage than the asylum.