Luton husband's fury after seriously ill wife sent home from hospital without the proper equipment

A Luton man has slammed a care system which caused his seriously ill wife to be sent from Luton and Dunstable hospital in the evening without the proper equipment to keep her safe.

Michael King's wife Maureen, aged 76, who suffers from MS and dementia, had been in hospital for six weeks following a fall, before being sent home on Friday (February 4).

She was also being treated for a bladder infection and a cyst on her liver.

Mr King, 76, said on Wednesday (Feb 2) he had discussed a proposal for a care package to allow his wife to come home, but didn't think it would be imminent. But on Thursday (Feb 3) he received a call saying she would be discharged on Friday (Feb 4). When she finally came home at 7pm on Friday night via patient transport, the two female staff had to struggle to get her upstairs into a normal bed.

He said: "I visited on Wednesday, February 2 and met with the occupational therapist who said Maureen would need physiotherapy and we discussed a Care Package for when she was discharged – the impression given was that this would not be anytime soon."

Carers from the APT Agency arrived soon after Maureen had been dropped off at home but were surprised there was no hospital bed and other medical equipment available, said Mr King.

"They did what they could and tried to make her comfortable for the night. The following morning (Saturday 5th) we started to try and get hold of someone to help, but were told as it was the weekend nothing more could be done until the Monday, and all we could do was dial 999 and get her back into hospital through A&E! We decided that would be too traumatic for her.

"The family spent the whole weekend resourcing and getting what equipment we could at our own expense. The carers still struggled to cope but did a fantastic job in the circumstances.

"Luton Social Services were contacted on the morning of Monday, February 7 and were appalled to know that Maureen had been sent home before the necessary equipment was in place.

"They then sent a lady out on the Monday to assess our needs and the equipment was ordered, which has arrived and was set in place on the afternoon of Tuesday February 8. Our thanks to the 'Millbrook' driver who was fantastic and did a great job.

"I'm lucky to have a very supportive family otherwise she would have had to go right back into hospital," he said.

"I'm absolutely fuming. I understand all the problems they [the hospital] have got but they have made life much worse for themselves. They took it on themselves to get rid of her. The implication we have had is that they sent her home because they needed the bed.

"I don't want this to happen to anyone else.

"My son emailed PALS to register our complaints on Sunday evening, and was told it would be passed on to the Matron – we still have not received a reply."

A spokesman for the L&D said: “In order to ensure we do not breach patient confidentiality, we’re unable to comment in detail about individual cases. Our PALS team are in contact with the family and working with the clinical teams to resolve the situation.”