Barnard Castle woman speaks out after long-wait for wheelchair for seriously ill husband

A BARNARD Castle woman has described how her wait for a specialist wheelchair needed by her seriously ill husband has made her a prisoner in her own home.
Kath Toward has been housebound since her husband, Maurice, returned from a four-week stay in hospital in September.
Mr Toward, who is unable to speak or stand, has not left his bedroom since returning home. His wife has been forced to stay home to nurse him. A county council promise of the use of an interim wheelchair while one designed to cater for Mr Toward’s specific needs is built has also not yet happened.
Mrs Toward, a former chairwoman, of the now defunct community health council for Darlington and Teesdale, said: “They rang up on Friday (November 25) to say they can’t deliver it because there are parts missing from the back of it. It is going to pass Christmas and he still won’t be able to get up.
“He is going downhill steadily while he is in bed. I can’t get him up. Since September he has been in that bedroom. He will be dead before he gets the equipment.”
Without the use of a specially designed shower chair, Mrs Toward has to bed-bath her husband.
Life for Mr Toward, a former upper dale farmer renowned for techniques he used on his farm Herdship near the Cumbrian border, changed dramatically 13 years ago when he suffered a massive stroke at age 60. Now 73, Mrs Toward described her husband as a “very disabled person with complex needs”.
This summer he suddenly became very ill and Mrs Toward was forced to call for an ambulance. It took more than three hours to arrive.
Mrs Toward said: “The NHS is not teetering on the edge, it is crumbling away. I know this from working in the NHS for many years. You are in the hands of badly run services, not only that but there is no sanction on those who run the services. Where is the trust board? Why aren’t they questioning all this?
“As ill as he is, he can’t have continuous care because I have nursed him and he
doesn’t have bed sores.”
Despite the fact that she has a car that has been modified to accept a wheelchair, the couple cannot use it because there is no wheelchair.
Mrs Toward said: “I have to nurse him everyday for his multiple problems. I am condemned to the house. I can’t get out.
“I am a prisoner in here and it is horrible. If I had a wheelchair I could get day care for him and I could get out and have a break.”
While critical of those in charge of the council and NHS services, Mrs Toward has high praise for the nurses, carers and occupational therapist who look after her husband for the excellent work they are doing.
Durham County Council was not able to comment as we went to press.