In Leicestershire, an innovative scheme called make my Stay is using technology to alert hospital staff to the needs of patients with learning disabilities. Anita Pati reports

Mencap’s Death by Indifference (2007) was a damning report that detailed the deaths of six people with learning disabilities while in hospital under NHS care. It concluded that the underlying cause of death in hospital of many people with learning disabilities was, ‘the widespread ignorance and indifference throughout our healthcare services towards people with a learning disability, and their families and carers’.