Disabled people risk being left “even further behind” as lockdown measures ease unless they are fully involved in plans for recovery from covid, campaigners have warned.

A new report from Glasgow Disability Alliance (GDA) says the barriers and inequalities disabled people face have been “supercharged” by the covid pandemic.

Experiences reported during lockdown including having crucial healthcare cancelled, mental health support withdrawn and social care cut indefinitely.

Some GDA members were left without support to wash, use the toilet, eat or take medication.

One said: “Four days before lockdown, our care was cut completely with three hours notice. No [one] has checked on us since then to see how we are managing.”

Another said: “I waited four months for my mental health appointment and now received a letter that they cancelled all appointments for next 12 weeks.”

GDA estimates it helped prevent up to 5,000 people “falling through gaps” between March to July as 80% of those spoken to were not aware of any support they could access in their local areas.

Around 2,000 disabled people in Glasgow had their care reduced or completely withdrawn from March onwards, leaving many to rely on family or neighbours for vital care including washing and eating.

A snapshot survey found 90% of GDA members were worried about their physical or mental health, with nearly half concerned about access to food or medications and their social care support.

Eight out of ten said isolation was a major concern during the pandemic.

The report says as lockdown eases, the long-term impacts of the pandemic on disabled people must be recognised:

“Inequalities have been supercharged: the drive towards recovery and renewal will leave disabled people even further behind, unless urgent action is taken to supercharge out meaningful involvement, with disabled people and our organisations in the lead.”

Tressa Burke, CEO of GDA, said: “Covid has shown that although we are all in the same storm, we are not all in the same boat. Everyone caught in the covid-19 storm needs a lifeline to pull them out of danger when they need it most - but for disabled people there are far fewer lifelines within reach.

“Now more than ever, governments and leaders must harness the voices of disabled people and take every opportunity to understand and remove barriers, to design services and responses that meet the acute and changing needs of those most vulnerable to covid and its aftermath.”

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