An undercover reporter employed as a care worker filmed colleagues taunting, provoking, intimidating and repeatedly restraining patients with learning disabilities or autism at the private Whorlton Hall hospital near Barnard Castle, County Durham. The Panorama reporter Olivia Davies worked shifts at Whorlton Hall over a two-month period at the beginning of the year. Although there is no footage of assaults on patients, staff are shown discussing unauthorised restraint techniques and ways of inflicting pain without it being detected. A female care worker tells Davies she can be confident a female patient will not act up with her because she knows “I would fucking rugby tackle the cunt down”. Danshell was in turn taken over last year by US-owned Cygnet Health Care.

Source: The Guardian May 22, 2019 16:04 UTC