A SCHEME aimed at improving access to health services for people with learning disabilities is pressing ahead.
The £15,000 Darlington Primary Care Trust programme comes in response to a report produced by the Department of Health in 2001.
It found that people with learning disabilities were more likely to have poor health and more difficulty in accessing services.
The Darlington trust has established a team to offer a health assessment to everybody known to the service, as well as people in residential and nursing accommodation.
In a report to the trust board, assistant health improvement director Paul Davison said: "One of the targets the primary care trust has to reach is that everyone with a learning disability is registered with a GP by 2004.
"This project will help to achieve that target by starting with the people known to care managers, nurses and other support services, as well as people in residential and nursing care.
"However, this still leaves hundreds of people not known to the learning disability team. In order to establish a clearer understanding of the local position, an audit is currently taking place in primary care of the numbers of people with a diagnosis linked to learning disability."
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