Patients at a Northern Ireland hospital were left ‘zombified’ on medication and suffered ‘systematic abuse’ that became ‘normalised’ by staff, a public inquiry has found. The long-awaited report into Muckamore Abbey Hospital near Antrim uncovered a “profound catalogue of failures” towards some of the most vulnerable adults in the region.
Restrictive practices were used inappropriately, and ‘as needed’ medication was overused, leaving patients sedated and lethargic. Unexplained injuries including bruises, black eyes and broken bones were common. Inquiry chairman Tom Kark KC told relatives at a hearing in Belfast that the mistreatment of their loved ones “became normalised” by some staff.
“Public inquiry finds vulnerable adults at Muckamore Abbey Hospital were left ‘zombified’ on drugs and suffered systematic abuse by staff.”
“The people who lived at Muckamore Abbey Hospital deserved better and their families deserved better,” said Kark. He described the injuries as “neither isolated nor incidental. They were the visible marks of a systemic failure.”
The hospital has been at the centre of the UK’s largest-ever police investigation into the alleged abuse of vulnerable adults. Police have reported 124 individuals to Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service to date, and a number of prosecutions are continuing, running parallel to the public inquiry.
Glynn Brown, whose non-verbal son Aaron was a patient, said he was told an alleged assault on his son was a “one off incident”. Speaking at a press conference after the report’s publication, he said: “The one-off incident that involved my son has now proved to be there was hundreds of incidents, there was red flags everywhere, but everybody was wearing blinkers, nobody wanted to see. There’s nobody as blind as those that don’t want to see – that’s an old quote.”
Solicitor Claire McKeegan, who represents several families, said the findings “confirm years of systemic abuse and failure”. For years, she said, families “were told they were exaggerating, or they were simply not listened to at all.” Today, she added, “the inquiry has confirmed what they always knew — that their loved ones were abused on a staggering scale, that the failure was systemic, that the warning signs were there to be seen.”
The inquiry report, chaired by Kark, painted a grim picture of life inside the hospital. Staff systematically bullied those in their care, and the overuse of medication left patients in a state described as “zombified”. The findings have prompted fresh calls for accountability as the parallel police investigation continues.