Buzzin Disgrace

Thomas Bashford, 82, and his wife Iris, 81, are faced with being separated in the year that they will celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary.

Tom has been admitted to Southampton General Hospital after a heart attack and suffering from other health problems, and has been told that when he leaves he will be entitled to residential care but his wife may not be entitled to join him.

Iris has severe mobility problems and is almost blind but this may not be serious enough to warrant the residential care that her husband could receive.

The couple from Fawley in Hampshire, met in 1942 just before Tom joined the Navy and they married in 1946 and now after having spent more than 66 years together could be forced to live apart.

From his hospital bed, Tom said “I feel pretty grim about the future. The war didn’t split us up but now this could. I never thought I would see the day when I was separated from my wife. We have both worked our whole life, paying into the system, and I am not happy that we are being treated like this.”

Iris who was weeping said “I don’t want to be without him. I am very upset and angry. Apart from the war and hospital we have never been away from each other. I think things would have been different years ago. Old people used to be treated differently.”

The couple’s daughter Lynne Kotchie, had received a phone call after a meeting with a team at the hospital, who suggested that a residential home placement could be possible for her father.

Mrs Kotchie said “We are still trying to establish what we are entitled to. It was suggested that Dad could go to a home, but funding would not be available for Mum. If they have to split-up, it will be like having a limb cut off for them. They just won’t survive without each other.”

“I don’t know how Mum is expected to get by without Dad. He is her eyes and she can barely move about at home without feeling her way around the furniture. They have paid into the system all their lives and its appalling that the Government isn’t prepared to look after them in their twilight years.

“We don’t know how much time either of them has left and it is a very unfeeling society that would expect them to spend it apart. I think a serious review of the care service and how the Government spends our money is needed.”

It’s not right, how can elderly people be treated like this. I have emailed the Prime Minister to protest and if you feel as strongly as I do, please do the same.

Just click on the link and follow the guidelines below:

www.number-10.gov.uk

At the top of the page click on contact, next to Prime Minister and email your message. Thank you.