‘My sister is disabled, but is treated like a second-class citizen by the NHS’

The family of a woman with learning disabilities has called for national guidelines for NHS staff on how to treat vulnerable patients after she was treated “like a slab of meat” on multiple visits to hospital. Caroline Spooner, from Bedford, was recently referred to hospital with a chest infection, a common cause of sepsis, and low oxygen levels. She was admitted after a five-hour wait in A&E, but the 59-year-old, who is non-verbal and quadriplegic, was placed in a bed furthest from the nurse’s station.

Her sister, Julie Benson, said this put Caroline at a disadvantage as unlike able-bodied patients, she was unable to call the nurses for help when her health declined. Ms Benson, 56, also says that because of her sister’s learning disability and complex needs, it took staff much longer to notice the state she was in. “I got a phone call from the doctor asking me whether I would agree to a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order, which I would not.

I returned to find that Caroline had a curtain wrapped around her bed, so how could anyone spot if she needed help? She wasn’t on oxygen and hadn’t been intubated, but they still wanted me to sign a DNR. Yet she didn’t need high-level medical intervention. It wasn’t a life-or-death situation.

“If I went in with a chest infection, hospital staff wouldn’t; be saying to my partner or children ‘we’re not going to resuscitate her’. Yet when I challenged the DNR, the staff told me the intensive care team would not resusc.