I was at a meeting earlier this week where there was mention of three learning disabled people who had died unexpectedly all with (apparently) good care packages. They all choked. Astonishing.

My brain keeps bouncing from the investigation report into LB’s death and the response of the Trust. Let’s just go back to the Board minutes* of 29.7.13 (p.81).

Again. Astonishing. Astonishing that the Trust state that the postmortem indicates LB died of natural causes when it never did. It was undetermined and then established with additional tests. Most definitely not natural causes. And beyond astonishing that early investigations indicate that all appropriate systems and processes were in place. What the hell were these early investigators looking at?

That the Trust were so quick to try and badge this as a ‘natural causes’ jobby and that this probably ain’t unusual practice when it comes to learning disabled people dying unexpectedly, makes it hugely important that the report is made public. The apparent acceptance that a fit young 18 year old man could die in such circumstances underlines how being labelled as ‘learning disabled’ removes any of the considerations/human rights that the rest of us are accorded. We know the terrible statistics around the early deaths of learning disabled people. Less clear are the ways in which the actions of NHS and private providers contribute to, facilitate, cause and cover up these deaths. This is a matter of public interest.

The report must be made public.

*Just ignoring ‘the user’ shite for now.