Page 30 - Community Living Magazine 35-2

history
Scandal that led to hospital closures

A 1960s tabloid newspaper’s exposé of shocking abuse in a beyond Ely to assess how learning-
long-stay hospital played a significant role in the closure of disabled patients were being treated in
the NHS as a whole.
institutions throughout the UK, explains Susanna Shapland There was an acknowledgement that

abusive behaviour had been allowed to
n August 1967, a story broke in the flourish in some corners of Ely Hospital
News of the World. It concerned Ely owing to its isolation from both the
IHospital in Cardiff, an NHS long-stay community and from other institutions,
institution housing around 600 patients, and that this had happened in part
some of whom had lived there for over 50 because of a lack of external overview.
years, and most of whom were classed as As a result, Robinson’s successor
“sub-normal” or “severely sub-normal”. Richard Crossman established the Hospital
The source of the story was Michael Advisory Service to regularly visit and
Pantelides, a Cypriot-born nursing report back on the condition of hospitals,
assistant who worked there. He painted a particularly long-stay institutions such
picture of a hospital where an absence of as Ely.
strong leadership and a corresponding This was followed in 1971 by the Better
policy of cover-up among senior staff had Services for the Mentally Handicapped
fostered an environment where certain white paper, which recommended closing
members of staff regularly stole from long-stay hospitals and housing patients in
patients and imposed their authority with the community. This policy would result in
physical violence including restraint and the eventual closure of Ely Hospital in 1996.
threatening, bullying behaviour.
Following these revelations and the People tell their stories
accompanying public outrage, a The inquiry’s report noted there had been
government inquiry chaired by Geoffrey attempts to interview many of the
Howe QC (later to become a senior patients mentioned in the News of the
minister in Margaret Thatcher’s World article, but, “because of the severe
government) was established by the Children at Ely Hospital: sedatives were used disabilities of most of them, little
Welsh Hospital Board at the request of excessively to control behaviour, the inquiry found assistance was derived from this source”.
minister for health Kenneth Robinson. In 2014-2017, an oral history project both
Over the next two years, the committee The inquiry’s investigations uncovered challenged this claim and sought to rectify
gathered more than 1,000 pages of further abuses, including in the villa for the situation. The Hidden Now Heard
evidence from staff, patients and parents, boys. Parents complained that they had project set about capturing stories, images
made site visits and examined case notes, found their children dehydrated and filthy, and objects from the residents and staff of
ward books and other documents from bored and neglected with no stimulation Wales’s six old long-stay hospitals, among
the hospital. or access to toys. The excessive use of them Ely. By doing so, they hoped to ensure
In March 1969, following a political sedatives to control any challenging that “history is told and not forgotten”.
tussle over publication that was settled behaviour was also reported. Ely Hospital was the first major hospital
only by prime minister Harold Wilson’s Throughout the hospital, staff felt it was scandal following the Second World War,
intervention, the inquiry’s report was useless or even dangerous to complain but it was to be the first of many. n
published in full. about conditions or colleagues’ behaviour.
Some had found themselves forced to Further reading
‘Rough’ nursing leave while the perpetrators were left in Drakeford M. Why the Ely inquiry changed
The inquiry found that most of the alleged post, free to continue their abusive healthcare forever. Wales Online. 6 February
incidents of ill treatment reported in the practices unpunished. 2012. https://tinyurl.com/n95c9tn4
News of the World article had indeed Hunt P. Hidden Now Heard – Unearthing
taken place. Public outcry sparks change Stories. Learning Disability Wales. 8 August
Although it was frequently impossible Following the inquiry’s publication, there 2018. https://tinyurl.com/dfwkytjx
to establish intent, the inquiry held that at was further public outcry and significant Hutchinson C. Ely Hospital (various articles).
the very least there was a “persistence of changes were made. At Ely Hospital, these Wales Online. 2012-2015. https://tinyurl.
com/5avtpsnw
nursing methods which were old included increases in both staff (including Ely Hospital: Hidden Now Heard. https://www. Jurgen Schadeberg/Hidden Now Heard/People’s Collection Wales
fashioned, untutored, rough and, on some the reinstatement of those who had peoplescollection.wales/collections/579951.
occasions, lacking in sympathy”. complained and been dismissed) and Ely Hospital Remembered. Channel 4 News.
The widespread consumption by staff of funding, and the replacement and March 2016. https://tinyurl.com/59v8d53j
food (particularly meat) that had been reorganisation of the hospital’s Report of the Committee of Inquiry into
provided for the patients was also management committee. Allegations of Ill-treatment of Patients and
confirmed, and the case referred to the Significantly, Howe had insisted that the Other Irregularities at the Ely Hospital, Cardiff.
director of public prosecutions. inquiry had a wide brief, and should look CM 3975. 1969. https://tinyurl.com/4bcfh3wa

30 Vol 35 No 2 | Winter 2022 Community Living www.cl-initiatives.co.uk