Joanna Owen and Liz Sayce unveil the results of the Disability Rights Commission’s (DRC) 18-month formal investigation into the physical health inequalities experienced by people with learning disabilities and/or mental health problems

The DRC, an independent body set up to enforce the rights of disabled people, undertook the formal investigation because international research showed that these two groups of disabled people tend to die younger than other citizens, often from preventable illness. We wanted to find out the scale of the problem in England and Wales, why it occurs and what could be done, through primary care, to ‘close the gaps’ of inequality.