I posted about this the other night, then asked for the thread to be deleted as it potentially identifying. I've since discovered that the people involved are minded to go to the press about this, so I'll post again.
The matter is now being taken up by the couple's constituency MSP. This post is pretty much the content of the email I sent to him last night, with names changed. I wrote to him with the wife's knowledge and permission.
"John is in his late 80s, and is physically frail with a number of health problems. He has been in Local Hospital with a physical health issue for which surgery is not an option due to his age and frailty. However, as he was better in himself, it was planned that he be discharged from hospital and return home on Friday, 15th January. While in hospital he had been tested for Covid a few times - always negative, until Friday, when he tested positive.
When Janet received a call from the hospital on Friday to tell her that John had contracted Covid while in hospital, she expected that he would remain in hospital. However, the hospital wanted to send John home. Janet pointed out that she is vulnerable, being in her 70s with angina and diabetes. John and Janet have been more or less shielding since March, and have hardly left home in that time. Janet found herself in the distressing situation of having to refuse, repeatedly, to have her sick husband at home in case she contracted Covid from him. Their house cannot accommodate a couple with one self-isolating.
After some discussion, the hospital eventually agreed not to send John home.
On Sunday morning, the hospital again contacted Janet, said that John would need to come home and that as she couldn’t collect him, they would arrange a taxi. Janet again stated that she couldn't have John back home, but after repeated pressure from the hospital, felt she was left with no other option. With help from various sources, arrangements were made for John to self-isolate in a neighbour’s house which is currently unoccupied.
On Sunday evening, Janet was advised that the taxi firm had refused to take John as a passenger, so he remained in hospital.
Over Sunday night, John developed a high temperature, and the hospital contacted Janet on Monday morning to advise her of this and that John would now remain in hospital as a Covid patient.
On Tuesday, the hospital contacted Janet to let her know that John’s temperature was now back to normal, and that he would be discharged. John came back to home village in an ambulance on Tuesday afternoon.
John has Covid-19. He is a frail, elderly man, who can’t use a mobile phone and struggles to use a land-line. He is on his own in someone else’s house. There is no care package in place. There is no one with him to take action if his Covid symptoms worsen. It is entirely possible that he becomes ill and is unable to phone for help. He does have a care alarm button, but he is vulnerable, distressed and ill with Covid-19, and needs much more than that. Janet is taking food and medicines to the doorstep. He is frightened that he will give Janet Covid, and she is scared for him and for herself.
John and Janet are both extremely distressed and I would say traumatised by what has happened since Friday and the on-going dreadful situation in which they find themselves. Janet has said to me that she feels that she was bullied into this. She would much rather John was in hospital, with medical staff there if his condition deteriorates.
Why are vulnerable patients with Covid-19 being sent home from hospital?
Why are people like Janet being ignored when they say they cannot have a patient with Covid back home?
Why are they being sent back into the care of people who are themselves vulnerable?
Why are elderly vulnerable people with Covid-19 being expected to care for themselves in self-isolation without any medical attention or care?
Why are they not being sent to, for example, the Louisa Jordan Hospital which was set up last year for precisely this purpose?
How many other patients are being sent home with Covid?
I am horrified by what has happened, and is still happening, to John and Janet. I cannot comprehend why a frail, elderly man with Covid-19 has been discharged from hospital. He should be in hospital, being monitored and receiving appropriate care from medical professionals."
When I spoke to Janet today she says that John had told her that other patients were being sent home after testing positive for Covid.
Yesterday, when I was talking to her about what to do if John's condition worsened, I mentioned that the various bits of paper she received when John was discharged, might contain helpful information and an emergency number to call. Nope! The paperwork he was sent home with refers only to the physical condition he was admitted with - nothing at all about the fact that he has Covid-19.
And in terms of the pressure that was placed on Janet to accept having John back home - during one phone call a doctor said to her, "your husband is sitting here crying because you won't allow him to come home".
So, I can't go into my local chippy, but patients, including the most vulnerable, with covid are being sent back out into the community.
Oh, and the hospital said they weren't sending John home because they wanted his bed. They were sending him home in case he caught something in hospital!