NHS report reveals decade of failings in care of vulnerable man
A vulnerable man detained for 10 years was failed by a system meant to care for him, an independent NHS investigation has found.
Clive Treacey, a man who lived his life in the care of NHS and social care authorities, experienced an “unacceptably poor quality of life”, and was not kept safe from harm before his death at just 47.
The findings of the independent review, The Independent and Sky News can reveal, have concluded Mr Treacey’s death was “potentially avoidable” and comes after years of his family “fought” for answers.
His family are now pursuing a second inquest into his death after the review found a pathologist report and post-mortem used by coroners did not follow guidelines, along with new CCTV footage from the night he died.
NHS England commissioned the review, under the Learning Disability Mortality Review Programme, in January 2020 – three years after Mr Treacey’s death and after his family was initially denied a review.
In an exclusive interview with The Independent, Mr Treacey’s sister, Elaine Clark said: “We have fought on because Clive deserved nothing less. He spent his entire life being incarcerated and so did we, his entire family. He didn’t matter. His voice didn’t matter. His human rights didn’t matter. His life choices didn’t matter. The system and its people believed he did not matter and nobody in it had enough ambition to do anything differently."
“Well Clive did matter. It matters what happened to him. It matters that it’s still happening to other people. And it matters that nothing seems to be changing we are one family but there are many others like us.”
Source: The Independent, 9 December 2021