Labour councillors are demanding answers after a pensioner amputee was dismissed from hospital and says he was left with no support to live in a battered old caravan on a Southport driveway.
Cancer patient Matthew Muldoon, 66, was recuperating in Preston after having his prostate removed when he developed severe pains in his legs and was rushed into the local A&E.
Doctors at the Royal Preston Hospital diagnosed vascular disease and over two weeks battled to save his right leg but after two failed operations had to then amputate just below the knee.
Over the next four weeks, various options for his care were discussed including transferring him to Southport Hospital but came to nothing, says Mr Muldoon, who is known locally as Pete. He explained:
“I’m not quite sure what happened as options were mentioned over the time I was on the ward but the next thing I knew was the hospital welfare lady coming in and telling me that they were evicting me the very next day.
Those were the exact words she used, ” you are being evicted” – almost like I should never have been there!”
“It felt like there was no real thought of how I would cope after with the leg gone or of what sort of accommodation I was being dismissed into. No-one seemed to really care what was going to happen to me, they just needed me gone.”
His main concern was that he’d been living on a boat in Burscough before his ill-health and despite it being now totally unsuitable, he says this was exactly where the hospital was planning on returning him to. He continued:
“I told them there was no way I could go back to living on a boat so soon after the amputation and an occupational therapist there even wrote a letter saying it was unsuitable but to be honest I don’t think what came afterwards was top of their priorities, they just wanted me out.”
Pete’s daughter, Kelly McCluskey and his son-in-law Jason, say they also pleaded with the hospital explaining that her father had nowhere to go. Kelly says it made little difference:
“We couldn’t house dad as we have us and nine kids in a three-bedroom house, there was simply no room to put him anywhere and especially not after an operation like that. We fully explained his situation but it felt like no-one was really listening.”
“You could see from his time on the ward that the staff were under huge pressure but that doesn’t excuse what happened to him.”
What happened is that Mr Muldoon was driven in an ambulance to the McCluskey’s house in Brooke Close, Southport, and then left on the drive to see his new home – a 1970’s caravan that had seen far better days:
“I’m not sure what was in a worse condition, me or the caravan”, quipped Pete. He continued:
“They were going to send me back to the boat, so I asked to go there instead. Despite it being what it was, it was still the better of the two options. So the ambulance pulled up and I was left there with a wheelchair, a commode and that was it, they were gone.”
The old caravan, which had been bought by Kelly and Jason for £100 to serve as a play area for the children in poor weather, was now pressed into service as Pete’s new accommodation.
He’d been living there for over a month in despair when his son-in-law Jason reached out to Southport Labour’s newly-elected councillor in Norwood, Greg Myers, who says:
“I was genuinely shocked by the conditions Pete was left in when I saw them. He’d just been cut adrift it appeared. I immediately spoke to my ward colleagues Mhairi Doyle and Carran Waterfield and we started to put in the calls needed to help him.”
“We began speaking to various agencies about suitable accommodation and contacted Sefton Adult Social Services to ask that he get an immediate assessment of his needs.”
“I’m delighted that he’s now moved into a specially adapted bungalow not too far away in Ainsdale and is also receiving all the support he wants from Sefton.”
“What I cannot understand is how he was treated in this fashion in the first place, I know that our health and social care systems have been under huge pressure since the Coalition but this seems a truly awful example of poor care if the details are as Mr Muldoon and his family have outlined.”
Pete and his family say they are very grateful for the help they’ve received from their local Labour councillors but also want an explanation and apology from Royal Preston Hospital and its local health services for the problems he’s faced. Son-in-law Jason McCluskey explained:
“Greg’s been here repeatedly to give us support and we can’t thank him or the other Norwood councillors enough, they are the only ones who have fought for us and got us noticed. It’s a different case with the hospital though, my wife and I are pretty disgusted at the way her dad was treated. He’s really been through it.”
Cllr Myers agrees that there are questions to be faced by Royal Preston Hospital and its partner services:
“This doesn’t appear to be a case of someone slipping through the system, as Pete and his family are adamant that his circumstances were known – they were just seemingly ignored. If that is true and that is the stage we are at now due to all these cuts and pressures then it is deeply worrying.”
“I’ve started the complaint procedure on Mr Muldoon’s behalf and we are waiting to hear from the hospital in response. We need clear answers as to how Pete ended up in this situation and what exactly has gone wrong here.”
Mr Muldoon says he’s now looking forward to a fresh start in his new home but still can’t understand how he came to be left to fend for himself:
“They basically left me legless, homeless and clueless – that’s not a good set of circumstances for anyone let’s be honest. I might joke to keep my spirits up but really, I’m angry and deeply disappointed.”
“It’s been a very difficult time and that’s not even taking into consideration the emotional aspect of losing your leg and the lack of any sort of rehabilitation or aftercare or the like – this was just the most absolute basic needs and decencies that were ignored.”
“Somebody needs to tell me why and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
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