Bureau Recommends: Patient abuse caught on film labelled ‘torture’
The Bureau recommends the BBC’s Panorama investigation into serious and systematic abuse at a residential hospital in Bristol.
The film exposed the shocking lack of care given to residents who have learning disabilities and autism. Secretly filmed footage showed the patients being physically and mentally abused by staff members.
During five weeks spent filming, Panorama’s reporter captured footage of some of the hospital’s most vulnerable patients being repeatedly pinned down, slapped, dragged into showers while fully clothed, taunted and teased.
One expert described the treatment as “torture”.
The hospital’s owners, Castlebeck, runs 50 similar institutions throughout the country.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism’s Editor said: “It was a masterclass in investigative journalism revealing how undercover footage, when obtained ethically and legitimately, can reveal serious failures in society. If this film does not cause institutional change then something is very wrong indeed.”
Panorama decided to film secretly after being approached by a former senior nurse at the hospital. The nurse was deeply concerned about the behaviour of some of the support workers caring for patients.
