Daughters despair for father, 85, stuck in hospital

Wilfred Jardine has been in hospital for nine weeks despite being fit for discharge

A woman whose 85-year-old father has been in hospital for nine weeks, despite being fit for discharge, says the health and care system is “letting our elderly people down”.

Wilfred Jardine needs specialist care for vascular dementia, but financial constraints and a shortage of appropriate care homes mean he is stuck at Heartlands Hospital.

“We’re not the only family that’s going through this. We’ve spent a lot of time in hospitals, in care homes, and everybody’s got a very similar story to tell,” said Mr Jardine’s daughter Lisa Sales.

University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust (UHB), which runs Heartlands, said it would continue to try to find a solution for Mr Jardine.

Both Lisa Sales and her sister Donna Jardine have given up work to care for their father

NHS data released last summer showed hundreds of patients were taking up hospital beds across England, despite being ready to leave.

The figures indicate the biggest obstacle to speedy discharge was a lack of beds in other settings, such as care homes.

Both Ms Sales and her sister, Donna Jardine, have given up work to care for their father.

“We have to try and explain [to him] why he can’t come out of hospital," Ms Jardine told BBC Midlands Today.

"And then we’re the bad guys because he thinks that we’re stopping him. He’s just so frustrated and sad."

UHB said it had not been able to secure a long-term placement for Mr Jardine so far because of the complexity of his needs.

It added that both hospital and community teams would continue to do their best to find a solution.

Mr Jardine, who is from Warwickshire, has been in and out of hospital three times since August.

After a stroke, he was first placed in a care home where he broke his ribs and fractured his hip, leading him to return to hospital for an operation.