Left to rot
Desperate daughter releases heart-wrenching picture of her crippled 60-year-old father Billy, contorted in pain and stuck in the foetal position in his sick bed for over 2 years in a bid to get someone .. anyone .. in authority to help him
‘I JUST NEED MY DAD SETTLED TO SEE OUT THE REST OF HIS DAYS’
DISABLED Billy Barclay lies contorted and wracked by pain and fear – as he has done for at least two-and-a-half years. His desperate daughter Barbara Gallacher says her multiple sclerosis sufferer dad has fallen through the cracks of a broken care system. She asked for our harrowing picture of his plight to be published to expose the scandal – and in a last-ditch bid to get some help for him. Billy, 60, is stuck in the foetal position because of muscle wastage causing his legs to retract. Now he is trapped in hospital because there is no appropriate nursing home to cope with his complex medical needs, which include mental health issues. Barbara had been estranged from her dad but when she decided to make contact two-and-a-half years ago, she was appalled by his physical and mental state. Billy, a former taxi driver and Territorial Army soldier, had become confined to his home in East Kilbride when his MS became unmanageable and his mental health deteriorated. When Barbara, 36, arrived she found him living alone and curled up in a ball – unable to stretch out after being stuck like that for many months. Barbara said: “I had never seen anything like it before. It was like something you would see on the streets of India, not Scotland. “In some ways, he resembled an animal and he was screaming out so much in pain because his legs would go into painful spasms.
“He was totally away with the fairies. He had really bad bedsores. You could smell them. Because there was no one to fight his corner, he was left to rot.
“If this is the situation people end up in under care in the community, it is clearly not working.”
Barbara, who lost contact with her father as a child when her parents split up, blames social workers for the state he is in.
She said: “According to social work, he had a five-star care plan but because he refused to go for hospital appointments, they just left him.”
When Barbara challenged South Lanarkshire’s social work department about why they had not taken action to make her dad get medical help, she was told he had the mental capacity to make his own decisions.
She spent thousands of pounds on a proper mental health assessment for Billy to prove they were wrong.
And when she looked back through records, it was clear from carers’ reports that Billy’s mental illness was recognised as far back as 2013 – at least a year before she was reunited with him.
She said: “It was clear my dad needed help but they did nothing.
“They could have applied for an order at any time to prove my dad was incapable of making his own health decisions but they didn’t. They just
allowed him to deteriorate.”
Billy was eventually taken into hospital with severe bedsores and then discharged to the Flemington Care Home in Cambuslang, near Glasgow.
While the staff did their best and Billy’s general health improved, they did not have the expertise to deal with all his problems. His mental health and his behaviour worsened.
Billy was re-admitted to Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride with a urinary tract infection early this year.
But he has been fit for discharge from the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow – where he was transferred after his admission to Hairmyres – for five months.
He could go back to the care home but Barbara is insistent a facility to deal with all his needs should be found.
Because Billy is under 65, the amount of available places are scarce, though.
Barbara said: “He is being treated as having a palliative condition but the homes which offer palliative care can’t deal with his mental health.
“He needs a big room because he has a specialist bed and it needs to have an en suite because he needs to be hoisted.
“I have tried everyone for help. If they would open up homes for the over-65s, I might have a better chance. I just need my dad to be settled to see out the rest of his days.”
Barbara issued an appeal to South Lanarkshire Council: “Please find my dad somewhere to go. You neglected him but now I am begging for your help.
“If he hadn’t been neglected in the first place he wouldn’t have needed the care he does now.”
She added: “The Government need to stop making cuts and up resources for the under-65s with mental health issues.”
Labour’s health spokesman Anas Sarwar said Billy’s was a “really tragic and heartbreaking story”.
He added: “Sadly this isn’t an isolated case. Scotland led the way under a Labour administration when we introduced free personal care for the elderly.
“But we must recognise society has a responsibility to support all those who are in need of care like this case exemplifies.
“That’s why we must now look at how we can strengthen and expand free personal care.
“This should look at ensuring that social care is properly funded so we can meet our existing obligations but also how we can expand free personal care to the under-65s, too.
“That’s why Labour support Frank’s Law and are currently exploring options to go even further.”
Frank’s Law – named after former Dundee United footballer Frank Kopel, who was diagnosed with dementia aged 59 – aims to extend free personal care to sufferers under 65. Scottish Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs, who introduced the Frank’s Law member’s bill at Holyrood, said of Billy’s case: “This is an extremely difficult situation.We clearly have an individual in a great deal of pain who requires much assistance.
“It is clear there has been a failure to put together the appropriate package for this individual – despite the integration of health and social care being in place to prevent these sort of cases.
“Above all, it is important for South Lanarkshire Council and NHS Lanarkshire to help secure the appropriate care at the earliest opportunity.”
The council’s head of adult and older people services, Brenda Hutchinson, said: “The social work service has been working alongside Mr Barclay and the family to assess his needs and is now actively seeking to identify an appropriate facility for him.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said they “deeply regret anyone having to wait longer than necessary to receive their care package”.
She added: “In the coming year. there will be almost half a billion pounds of NHS investment in social care and integration. We are also working to deliver reform to adult social care.”
It was like a scene on the streets of India .. not like you expect to see in Scotland BARBARA