News: Performance Management
NHS discrimination: 'High time' for mandatory training
30 July 2008
Stronger leadership and more staff training are among the recommendations which have been laid out to ensure discrimination does not impinge on NHS care provision.
An official enquiry, chaired by Sir Jonathan Michael, concludes that individuals with learning difficulties currently face such discrimination within the health service.
Sir Michael, the former chief executive of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS foundation trust, has also called for better regulation systems in the sector.
"What matters is that people with learning disabilities are included as equal citizens, with equal rights of access to equally effective treatment," he remarked.
Jon Sparkes, an executive director of disability charity Scope, added: "It is high time that the NHS provides compulsory disability equality training for all its staff so that the individual needs of disabled people are recognised and respected."
Sir Michael's inquiry was launched in May last year in the wake of Death by Indifference, a report by learning disability charity Mencap.
Mencap's chief executive, Dame Jo Williams, said the March 2007 publication underlined "a desperate need" for mandatory learning disability training for all healthcare professionals.
