Hospital staff broke man’s arm while restraining him and then left him ‘untreated for 24 hours’

A private healthcare provider has agreed to pay damages to a patient with learning disabilities after staff broke his arm, The Independent can reveal.

Cygnet Health Care, one of the largest providers of mental health inpatient care in the UK, has settled a claim with the former patient of a hospital it now owns.

Jamie Newcombe, a 29-year-old young autistic man with learning disabilities, took action against the healthcare giant after he allegedly suffered “significant physical and psychological harm” at Bostall House assessment and treatment unit in London.

He claimed he had been “violently restrained by staff and pushed out into the hospital garden” in 2014, at the age of 19. At the time, the hospital was owned by another private company The Danshell Group.

As a result of this restraint, he says he sustained a fracture in his right arm and staff allegedly left his injuries untreated for 24 hours.

He said he suffered further physical assaults in December 2014 and January 2015, that he was subjected to “degrading treatment” such as personal care being ignored, and was denied access to hot running water for three weeks.

Following his experience, his mother Julie Newcombe launched an autism and learning disability rights campaign group, called Rightful Lives, which now has hundreds of members.

She told The Independent: “What happened to Jamie was horrific and is still happening to so many others 10 years later. I co-founded Rightful Lives 6 years ago to shine a light on the human rights of autistic people and people with learning disabilities. Yet the fact remains that if Jamie were to go into one of these units again, the same things could happen. That is our fear.”

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Source: The Independent, 2 October 2024