Disabled People’s Rights, DNAR and Covid19

Learning Disability England has joined voices with over 70 other disabled people’s organisations and allies in an Open Letter supporting a Statement about the rights of disabled people during Covid 19.

We are all concerned about recent media coverage and letters from GPs about DNAR.

You can read the response from Professor Stephen Powis, National Medical Director, NHS England and NHS Improvement and Ruth May, Chief Nursing Officer, NHS England and NHS Improvement to the Open Letter.

Baroness Campbell replied to this response. You can read Baroness Campbell’s reply here.

The Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities also issued a joint statement on persons with disabilities and Covid-19.

As a result of this lobbying, the Care Quality Commission, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the British Medical Association and the Care Providers Association issued a joint statement on advance care planning.

They said “it is unacceptable for advance care plans, with or without DNAR form completion, to be applied to groups of people of any description”.

VoiceAbility have created a template letter to raise concerns about restrictions on care where someone has received a DNAR letter from their GP or other professional.

The template can be changed to add your personal details.

We carried out a ‘snapshot’ survey at the end of April to find out the experiences of our members and DNAR during the pandemic. Read the Full Report and Easy Read here

Read the Case Studies some of our members gave us as part of the survey.

Watch a video here from Dudley Voices on Questions we all want to know the answers to when thinking about DNAR’s.

Learn more about your human rights in The British Institute of Human Rights hub here.