A WOMAN has said that change is needed after her elderly mother caught Covid in hospital whilst there was a delay in reinstating care for her at home.

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, said that her 92-year-old mum was admitted to the Royal Hampshire County Hospital, in Winchester, in September after she had suffered a fall at home.

But the problems began when her family wanted to bring their mother home but were forced to wait for a care package as Hampshire County Council had cancelled the help in place. As is the norm when residents with authority-organised care are admitted to hospital.

The elderly woman’s daughter said: “She was in for about a week when the ward she was in was closed because staff had Covid.

“She was transferred to another ward; she was in there a day when a patient in there was diagnosed with Covid. I couldn’t understand why we couldn’t have bought her home as soon as the first ward re-opened she shouldn’t have been moved into another ward.”

Despite living with her son, the hospital patient was apparently not able to return home without 24/7 care.

She added: “I didn’t understand, I just felt she should have come home. We should have been able to bring her home without care in place.

“When you are elderly your care gets stopped straight away so we had to wait for another care package."

Despite the mother funding her own care, the family were not told that they could organise their own and reapplied to the council for care – in the meantime their mother was diagnosed with Covid-19.

“She definitely wouldn’t have caught Covid. I was so careful, I wasn’t going into visit her and carers were all masked up.”

The woman says that work should be done to shorten the time that patients are in hospital and home care reinstated.

“They [the elderly] are put at risk, they are in hospital I think sometimes they shouldn’t be admitted – it was just an unfortunate thing.”

She continued: “I feel personally that there is a real breakdown between the elderly going into hospital and the care package immediately stopped then it is very difficult to get that package back in place.

“I don’t think she should have been kept in there, there should be a procedure that allows them to come home as soon as possible.

“I would now tell people if care is organised through the council I would tell them to stop it before anything like this happens.”

The Andover woman said that she believes that there was “poor communication” between the hospital and the county council, adding: “It was quite difficult”.

Unfortunately her mother died on November 26, but Covid was not the cause of death.

The county council was contacted for a comment but it did not respond.