Old left high and dry

The S.O.'s mother has been in hospital for several weeks and he is seeing her doctors tomorrow to discuss her condition. She has her own room, but obviously can't stay there indefinately. It'll be interesting to hear what options are put forward at the meeting.

Sorry about that, Tegan. Hopefully you have all discussed all the options you think are available to you.
My mother in law has dementia and has been in and out of hospital and care home since Easter. I do not have any say, as there are two sons still alive. But I have heard that they are discussing 100% funding for her at last, as she cannot even get on her feet now.
No fun, is it?

I'm not involved at all really other than to hear what's going on. She has been in and out of hospital for about 2/3 years now and I must say the care she has had during that time has been fantastic. Although she was in one care home for a while which seemed very good, but when she went back there at a later date she begged never to be sent there again. It all seemed fine during the day but another relative called in one evening and the staff were in the staff room and calls from the patients seemed to be being ignored. Very worrying. Had she been suffering from dementia at the time she obviously wouldn't have been able to say she was unhappy there.

This hospital wher my brother dies had sign( no longer there) of a finger pointing left to THE ELDERLY. Later DH said the minute the ambulance turned left he was done for. He died of neglect a couple of weeks later.

Sorry about the typing errors. It always upsets me and it is tragic that the situation is not getting better.

It's a fact that there have been huge cuts to council budgets and thus to support in the community for vulnerable people.

I posted a year or so ago about a "consultation document" my mum had received regarding changes to the Meals on Wheels service she receives. I think it was "FlicketyB" who had worked in the field of questionnaire design who agreed with me that, from the questions and options given, there was a strong indication that plans were afoot to reduce the service.

I wrote to the Council and to my mum's MP, Tim Yeo (who I later read had stood down after criticisms from his constituents). He merely replied that he was sorry I was dissatisfied with her current Meals on Wheels service (which indicated that he had not read my letter as I had said I and my mum were very happy with the service but were concerned about the possible changes to it).

The next thing was that the RVS wrote to say that, in effect, the Council had cut them adrift and removed its financial contribution towards providing the service. The cost then went up quite considerably - and I got the impression that some people would no longer be deemed eligible for assistance. My mum is 94 and fortunately she can well afford the additional cost, but I'm sure there must be people who have either had their service reduced or restricted or who would find the increased price puts them under financial pressure.

I'm astounded. the S.O. went to the hospital, supposedly to discuss with a doctor his mum's condition and instead he met a social worker who a] thought he was his mums husband b] hadn't even looked at her notes c] arranged the meeting to discuss her discharge [she has an infection, is incontinent and can't walk] and d] was only interested in how much money she had in the bank. Complete waste of everyones time and taxpayers money.

There's a knock-on effect. Central government cuts payments to local government. Local government cuts grants to local charities which cares for the disabled and disadvantaged. Locally to me, the local branch of Age UK became insolvent and ceased trading, several other charities have already cut staff members and the services they offer as they head down the same route. With no social care framework in place, many older and/or disabled persons cannot return home and free up much needed hospital beds.

With Councils having to make even more cuts the situation is going to escalate. In Wiltshire £30m worth of savings have to be made from April 2015. Over the past few years there has been a similar figure each year. Social Services have been 'protected' as far as possible so far....... but clearly this probably can't continue.
The Third Sector has been badly hit every year.
The ongoing lack of suitable community services to support the older population will continue to impact on hospitals and the vicious circle will continue.
This has been happening over a number of years and, so far as I can see, unless there is a dramatic change will go on in to the future.
All very sad.

www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2015/01/22/an-unreported-scandal-wages-so-low-they-re-illegal

Mainly care workers pay.
Notice it ties in with the fact that the number of staff in HMRC has been cut so it's difficult to prosecute. I do not understand why it has to be done on an individual basis. Surely if a company is underpaying one member of staff, it's probably doing it to many more because of the system they use.

Had a phone call from a brother in law. His mother's home is on lockdown, no visitors because there is norovirus. She was okay yesterday. I hope they are keeping them all in their separate rooms.