Care nightmare for OAP couple

AN elderly couple from Sanquhar experienced a bureaucratic nightmare whilst waiting for care support.
Violet Thomas, 76, has revealed that despite finally securing external carers after a four-month search, the council retracted her husband Jackie’s funding package.
As a result, 79-year-old Jackie was trapped on a hospital ward 30 miles from home, nearly four months after being declared medically fit for discharge.
Jackie’s nightmare began on December 5 when he was admitted to DGRI for tests. Expecting to be ‘in and out,’ he was instead diagnosed with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), a terminal neurological condition.
Due to staff shortages and a lack of physiotherapy on the ward, Jackie’s strength deteriorated while in hospital. He is now unable to walk, his weight has plummeted to nine stone, and he requires pureed food due to swallowing issues. Although staff help with breakfast and dinner, Violet does a 60-mile round trip every day to help him eat lunch.
Jackie was signed off for priority discharge almost four months ago. Initially council support was good, helping by installing a hoist, and a specialist profile bed. In addition, they allocated a funding package of 28 hours of care per week, requiring two carers to visit three times a day.
However, securing available care staff in Sanquhar proved nearly impossible until early in June - but then the council said the funding was no longer available.
An exhausted Violet was furious at the twist and said: “To finally find the carers we desperately needed, only to have the council pull the funding out from under us, was cruel beyond belief.”
However, Dumfriesshire MSP Craig Hoy stepped in and managed to secure the funding again - and after four months, Jackie is now finally back at home.
Violet and Jackie’s ordeal mirror the findings of a national survey conducted by the UK charity PSPA.
CEO James Cusack said: “What Violet and Jackie have experienced is a tragic, modern-day Catch-22. It is unacceptable that a person is forced to languish in a hospital bed simply because social care systems are too rigid and reactive to support them.
“Symptoms of PSP & CBD can progress rapidly. Services must be flexible and anticipatory, not bound by arbitrary expiration dates that penalise the most vulnerable.”