Children’s crusade for justice against ‘abuse’ hospitals

The Independent's Morning Headlines email [The Independent]( June 19, 2023 [View online](   [Morning Headlines]( 1 /Families launch legal action against scandal-hit hospitals after The Independent exposed ‘systemic abuse’](//link.e.independent.co.uk/click/31832565.36574/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaW5kZXBlbmRlbnQuY28udWsvbGlmZS1zdHlsZS9yb3lhbC1mYW1pbHkvcHJpbmNlLWhhcnJ5LXRyaWFsLW1lZ2hhbi1tYXJrbGUtYjIzNTMyMjEuaHRtbA/583d2887487ccd777a8b7489B49d8ae6a Dozens of former [patients]( are launching legal action against a group of scandal-hit [children](’s mental health hospitals after The Independent [exposed a culture of “systemic abuse”](. More than 30 people, some of who are still children, are taking action after claiming they were mistreated at children’s hospitals run by [The Huntercombe Group]( between 2003 and 2023. Allegations include children being [injured during restraint, inappropriate force-feeding]( and patients being over-medicated. Among the claimants are: - A boy who has been left “traumatised” after being “drugged out of his mind” while staying at one of the hospitals - A girl who alleges she was groped by a member of staff and now needs more intensive inpatient care - A woman who says she was “forced to wee in bins” as there were not enough [staff to take patients to the toilet]( A mother of one claimant told The Independent: “It is diabolical, I hope [the claims] can stop them from doing any more damage because it is just awful. Our beautiful girl has just been so ruined by them.”   2 /[Tories face outrage over Covid lockdown party video]( Relatives of those who died during the pandemic vent their fury at video – a legacy of Johnson’s chaotic tenure 3 / [Weapons expert banned from government event for criticising Tories launches legal action]( Exclusive: Dan Kaszeta argues policy seeing civil servants trawl social media for government criticism is unlawful 4 / [Nearly 4 million working days lost to strikes as walkouts continue]( The data comes as NHS junior doctors are set to strike for 72 hours in mid-June, while teachers will strike for two days in July 5 / [Starmer pledges to cut bills with more energy projects]( Sir Keir Starmer is expected to set out new targets to cut the time taken to complete green initiatives faster THE BIG QUESTION Do Britain’s struggling homeowners need a mortgage furlough? A ghost has taken up residence in the Treasury. It loudly rattles its chain and wails “mortgage furlough, mortgage furlough” every time Jeremy Hunt leaves his office in search of a coffee or a sandwich. The [Resolution Foundation](today publishes its updated figures on just how much the mortgage crisis is going to cost Britain’s borrowers. Those figures are truly awful. The average bill for remortgaging comes to £2,900, with the surge in mortgage rates set to rip £15.8bn out of British household budgets. That’s a huge chunk of change coming out of the economy too. It might help tip it into a recession Hunt hopes to avoid. The reason for the sudden increase is that the City now expects Bank of England base rates to peak at close to six per cent, the highest since the disastrous Liz Truss mini-budget. 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