NHS cuts leave pensioner ‘marooned’ in his home
A pensioner banned from driving because of a serious sleep disorder says he’s been marooned because a hospital trust can’t afford to fund life-saving equipment.
Richard Powell, 71, was diagnosed with sleep apnoea at Maidstone Hospital in February after reporting breathing problems.
The retired former lorry driver was told the best available treatment, a continuous positive airway pressure device, could not be funded by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust and he was referred to The Lane Fox Respiratory Unit in London in June.
The disabled resident of Beacon Road, Lenham, was stripped of his licence by the DVLA until his condition improves, and says this loss of independence has seriously harmed his health.
He said: “They said there is no funding to supply the machine.
“It means that I can’t go to the village, I can’t go to the doctors so my son takes me, and I can’t go to the dentist or the gym.”
Mr Powell, who has osteo- arthritis, added: “I am retired but anyone who has their licence taken away could lose their job. It must be terrible.”
Obstructive sleep apnoea is a relatively common condition affecting about 1.5 million adults in the UK, around 85% of whom have not been diagnosed. It involves the walls of the throat relaxing and narrowing during sleep, interrupting normal breathing.
This may lead to regularly poor rest, which can have a big impact on quality of life and – if untreated – could lead to conditions such as high blood pressure, stroke or type two diabetes.
People with serious, untreated forms of the condition must surrender their licence and face a fine and prosecution if they don’t tell the DVLA about it.
The body responsible for planning and buying in healthcare services in the Maidstone area is West Kent Clinical Commissioning Group, but it had not commented by the time the Kent Messenger went to press.
Mr Powell wrote to Helen Whately, the Conservative candidate for Faversham and Mid Kent in June’s general election, who said that she would contact the trust.