Sick OAP's family in struggle for support
An 80-year-old Sutherland man went six months without a regular daily shower after NHS Highland took away a hoist to get him out of bed, his family have claimed.
Hamish Matheson of Achvaich, Dornoch, suffers from a range of health issues including vascular dementia, diabetes and angina.
He has been bedridden for the last two years and also has to cope with pressure sores.
But this week he was being looked after in the Cambusavie wing of the Lawson Memorial Hospital in Golspie after an accident involving his care team using equipment at the centre of the row.
Poignantly his distraught wife Isobel, 72, said she would have even raised the money from a sponsored walk for the specialist hoist needed to get her husband out of bed if she had been more able.
Mr Matheson lives with his wife in a 200-year-old croft house.
The couple, who will have been married for 50 years next month, have two married sons, James and Ronald who live in the area.
Mrs Matheson told the Northern Times that in the last six years, Hamish’s health had deteriorated rapidly. He is looked after by a team of carers. Two come in every day – in the morning, at noon and at 8pm.
But he was taken to Cambusavie last week because of staffing shortages in the care
team, after one of them suffered a back injury trying to use the hoist the health board have provided for Hamish, which the family say is inadequate.
“The hospital have said he’s not to come home until the situation has improved,” said Mrs Matheson. “It has been terribly upsetting for all the family. We really would like the situation sorted as soon as possible.”
The problems centre on the suitability of a hoist to get Hamish out of bed and into a mobile shower chair.
It has to be a mobile hoist because the couple’s crofthouse is not suitable for a tracking hoist, attached to a ceiling or wall.
Mrs Matheson said one hoist the couple were given had to be ditched because its ball bearings went. They were then provided with an £8200 hoist on “trial”.
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“This worked well but after a couple of weeks it was taken away again,” she said. “We were told there was no funding available for it.
“Another mobile hoist was provided but it is not suitable for the home.”
Mr Matheson was no longer able to be taken to the shower because the long legs made it hard to turn him out of the bed and into the chair. The family had previously complained to NHS Highland because they were unable to shower Mr Matheson as another supplied chair was too low and did not have a special sling for the hoist. “For six months until March, Hamish did not have a daily shower. The hoist was not suitable at all,” said Mrs Matheson.
“The family gathered once-a-week to use what equipment there was and lift Hamish into a shower chair so we could bathe him. It took four of us. I would have helped with some funding if I could have – if I was ten years younger I would have done a sponsored walk – to raise the money for the hoist that did work.
“I am very upset and so are my sons. Hamish is upset. I complained and my daughter-in-law Heather also complained and we still did not get a satisfactory response. Hamish is being well cared for in hospital. All we want is the right hoist at home.”
A spokesperson for NHS Highland said: “We are reviewing long-term requirements with the gentlemen and his family as a matter of priority.
“NHS Highland provides hoists in private homes after a full and agreed assessment.”
