EFFORTS are being stepped up to prevent people with learning disabilities from dying up to 20 years earlier than those without.

Cumbrian health chiefs have admitted delays in reviews of deaths, which aim to look at where lessons can be learned for the future.

But Peter Rooney, chief operating officer at NHS North Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said they are working to rectify this - and were committed to tackling inequalities.

“There is no reason a learning disability should compromise someone’s physical health,” he said.

His comments follow the publication of a new learning disability mortality review.

Anna Stabler, executive director of nursing and quality, presented the report to the CCG governing body at its meeting in Carlisle.

She explained that on average, people with learning disabilities die 15 to 20 years younger than the general population - many of which could have been prevented.

Often the death is a result of being unable to access good quality healthcare, impacting on their physical health.

There is now a national push to review all deaths of those with learning disabilities, to identify barriers and learn from them.

In north Cumbria, a total of 19 deaths were flagged up for review between April 2018 and March this year.

However Ms Stabler admitted that very few of these have been completed.

“The report makes difficult reading. There were 19 cases reported last year of individuals with a learning disability, but we had a backlog of cases previous to that,” she said.

“Last year we only managed to review 11 deaths.”

However she said this was partly due to a shortage of staff in north Cumbria who are qualified to conduct the reviews. As a result, more people are being trained.

Mr Rooney made a public commitment to tackling this issue - but said they also need to look outside the NHS.

“The CCG will ensure that we have sufficient capacity to carry out these reviews in a timely fashion.

“We will do our bit in terms of reviews but there is a big challenge in the wider system - a big challenge here for everyone.”

Sue Stevenson, from Healthwatch Cumbria, agreed. She said: “Our Everyone Has a Voice report looked at how people with a learning disability can experience a life like we all experience. It found that inequalities start almost from birth,” she said.

“If people have a good start in life and are supported, they are less likely to become one of these very sad statistics.”

On a positive note, the meeting did hear that North Cumbria CCG is among the first in the country to publish this report, as it wasn’t due until next year. It also heard that GPs locally are receiving extra training to support those with learning disabilities.