An RAF veteran and former pilot with tetraplegia says a lack of specialist disability care staff in hospitals has left him with a pressure sore which could confine him to his home until next year.
Jerry Ward, from Cheshire, said he developed the sore after being moved incorrectly by staff at Leighton Hospital in Crewe, where he was admitted in September because his specialist homecare team was not allowed to enter the ward.
The 65-year-old has called on Health Secretary Wes Streeting to change the policy preventing homecare teams like his from entering hospitals, saying it was continuing to put his life “at high risk”.
The department of health and social care said it was “fixing the broken NHS” and had created a 10-year plan that would shift care out of hospitals into communities”, so people “would receive the right care”.
Concerns about insurance and safeguarding checks mean hospital trusts usually don’t allow specialist homecare teams onto wards, the Spinal Injuries Association said.
But in a letter to Mr Streeting, Mr Ward said: “Leighton Hospital is unable to maintain my continuous care needs due to the lack of sufficiently trained and qualified staff in acute spinal injury care.”
He added: “My assistants are paid to stay at home whilst I’m in hospital, and yet the local hospital can’t provide all the care I need.”
Mr Ward, an RAF veteran who worked as a commercial airline pilot, became tetraplegic after he was hit by a wave on a beach in Mexico in 2007, leaving him with a broken neck and requiring 24-hour specialist care.
Mr Ward said the pressure sore he developed from being moved by nursing staff would require treatment “probably for the remainder of the year”.
“It’s going to mean I can’t get up into my wheelchair, I can’t go out and about and do things, so you get stuck and grounded at home,” he added.
He said a catheter bag was also left unchecked for more than ten hours, which he said could have led to a “potentially life-threatening” episode of autonomic dysreflexia, which is a sudden and potentially lethal rise in blood pressure.
Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Leighton Hospital, said: “It is always disappointing to hear where we have fallen short, in this case, we continue to liaise with Mr Ward and identify areas where we can improve in the future.”
A spokesperson for NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, which plans local NHS services, said: “While patients can receive NHS continuing healthcare in a range of settings – including their own home or a care home – it doesn’t apply to acute hospitals, where hospital clinicians are best placed to provide the appropriate treatment and care.”
The department for health and social care said: “No-one with a long-term condition should worry that they will not receive the same high-quality, compassionate, and continuous care in hospital as they do at home.
“We are fixing the broken NHS by getting it back on its feet and creating a 10-year-plan that will shift care out of hospitals into communities, so people receive the right care where they need it.”
