Muckamore Abbey Hospital needs a closure date, says expert

Muckamore Abbey Hospital is at the centre of the UK's biggest ever police investigation into the abuse of vulnerable adults

An expert in adult safeguarding has told the public inquiry into abuse at Muckamore Abbey Hospital that politicians should set a "definite date" for the facility to be closed.

Dr Margaret Flynn was one of the authors into a review of Muckamore between 2012 and 2017.

The report was damning and found a series of "catastrophic failings" at the hospital.

Dr Flynn has called for the facility to be closed in the past.

She said the announcement in October 2022 of a consultation on the future of Muckamore was "crashingly disappointing".

Dr Flynn said she was encouraged that numbers of patients are continuing to reduce but added that "the hospital needs to close full stop."

When asked if she had a view on how quickly resettlement of patients could take place, she said: "[That] is certainly much easier to realise if there's a definite date established by politicians and senior people in the Department of Health."

Some patients had no teeth

The hospital provides treatment for people with severe learning disabilities and mental health needs

When was asked if the review team found a lack of evidence of general medical services at the hospital, she said;

"We talked with some families about the healthcare of their relatives and we learned of their experience of this.

"At a mundane level we met people who had no teeth, for example, people whose appearance was not suggestive of any care or careful attention.

"We shared the reflection of some relatives, if they're not looking out to ensure he even wears his own clothes, what else are they not paying attention to? We learned of quite young people taking quantities of laxatives when attention to diet might have been more appropriate."

Dr Flynn said her team was "troubled" at patients' isolation and the use of seclusion and restraint.

She said the review team found ineffective governance at Muckamore and added;

"That challenges that were known persisted, that people continued to be harmed, that families experienced exclusion and disbelief when they sought to draw attention to relatives' circumstances, that peoples' health status was not as it should be, that people had long and uneventful days. They desperately wanted to be active, to have a purpose, that didn't happen."

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Complaints ignored

Even after complaints were investigated, she said "things did not change".

Dr Flynn said that the review team found when newer members of staff who were troubled by what they witnessed tried to speak up, they were "ostracised" and had "no support" from management.

She was asked where the review team got that information, she replied, "the police".

The review team made two recommendations in their November 2018 report.

Dr Flynn was asked, nearly five years on, to reflect if those two recommendations have been acted upon.

"No," she said.

"It was crashingly disappointing to learn of the consultation about the future of Muckamore Abbey and as far as i know there isn't an updated framework."