An elderly couple were forced to live apart due to austerity practices by their council in Cornwall-England.
After paying their dues towards the NHS all their lives, they are now reaping the rewards.
Bodmin council are saving £10 a day as a result. However the Taxpayer is payting £2000 per week to keep Mary in a ward- while there is a shortage of beds in most NHS hospitals.
Dickie Delf, 85, is staying at the family home in Padstow, Cornwall, while wife Mary, 82, is stuck on the ward.
The farcical situation arose after the council cut the rate offered to a subcontracted care provider for Mary by £1.25 an hour. They then promptly pulled out. This forced Mary to stay at the hospital, were she been waiting to be discharged after a hip surgery.
Mary says she feels imprisoned in the ward. Dickie, a former soldier suffers from dementia and impaired vision.
Their son-in-law has said it is “disgraceful..It’s crazy that there isn’t a better way of doing this…”
- One reason why hospitals have struggled so badly this winter is that too many people who did not need to be there were taking up vital space. Clearly lessons are not being learned.
- This sorry episode has been brutally cruel on Mrs Delf and her husband of 65 years Dickie, who have been forced to live apart.
- More than that it is potentially dangerous.
- Mrs Delf’s doctor advised her to turn down the reduced care package she was initially offered, saying it was a risk to her health.
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