Health ombudsman to probe death due to negligence at NHS units

London: Dozens of vulnerable patients may have died of neglect in NHS hospitals and care homes, it was revealed Tuesday.

The health service ombudsman will launch a new inquiry after relatives said their loved ones suffered "horrific abuse" at the hands of doctors, nurses and care staff.

Yesterday, the ombudsman, Ann Abraham, released a report into six deaths in NHS or local authority care between 2003 and 2005.

Mental health charity Mencap had complained to her last year on behalf of their families. The report showed there had been human rights abuses and discrimination.

But campaigners yesterday warned that the deaths are just the "tip of the iceberg" with many more examples of institutional discrimination uncovered, prompting the new inquiry.

In yesterday's report Abraham found a catalogue of "significant and distressing failures" in hospital and council care.

She revealed that patients with learning difficulties were treated as second-class citizens, resulting in "prolonged suffering and inappropriate care".

Abraham found that Mark Cannon, 30, died as a consequence of public service failure by the Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust and Havering Council in east London.

Cannon, of Romford, Essex, was epileptic and had a severe learning difficulty which meant that he had very little speech.

In June 2003 he broke his leg at a council care home. Despite receiving treatment at Oldchurch Hospital in Romford, which is now closed, he died eight weeks later from complications.

The ombudsman concluded he had been left in severe pain and distress for prolonged periods, and was twice discharged from hospital without due concern for his safety. She also upheld a complaint against the healthcare commission finding that the regulator's review of a complaint by Cannon's parents was "unreliable and unsafe".

In the case of stroke patient Martin Ryan, 43, of Richmond, who had Down's Syndrome and died in December 2005 at Kingston hospital, Abraham found that doctors failed to give him a feeding tube and said: "At best [care] is patchy."

In the four other cases Abraham did not say the deaths were avoidable but she criticised standards of care.