Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Moray pensioner trapped in Highland hospital after council “cancelled” his care

Bill Heaton
Bill Heaton

A Moray pensioner is trapped in hospital after breaking his hip because council officials “cancelled” his care at home.

Bill Heaton, from Brodie, suffered the fracture three weeks ago after falling over and has been in Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, ever since.

It is understood a surgeon tried to send the 85-year-old home last Friday following his treatment.

But Mr Heaton’s power of attorney and close friend, Adrian Gray, was told that he could not be discharged as the local authority had pulled his at-home carers.

Last night, Moray Council said it had not received sufficient warning of Mr Heaton’s expected release date – and that it was “normal” to reallocate carer resources in those situations.

But Mr Gray said it was horrendous that Mr Heaton should be stuck in hospital any longer through no fault of his own.

“I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. What were they expecting him to do in hospital? Die?” he said.

“We weren’t told until last Friday he was coming out. I phoned the council as soon as I knew.

“The council talk about all these rules, but they are not practical.

“They have obviously got a problem with shortages of carers and it is simply not good enough.”

Mr Heaton has suffered a medical nightmare in the last seven months.

In April, the retired lorry driver left for a holiday in America with Mr Gray as a perfectly fit man.

However his health rapidly declined during the trip, and he returned suffering from a mystery illness which has left him unable to balance or walk without aids.

As his illness took hold, he blasted staff at Forres Health Centre who gave him Strepsils for a punctured lung.

After switching practices, he said his general care improved and that the council’s home care service helped him adjust.

However, no further progress has been made in diagnosing the bizarre illness that led to his latest fall and current stint in hospital.

A Moray Council spokesman said: “When someone is admitted to hospital, we will normally keep their care package open for around seven days, although that may vary depending how long they remain in hospital.

“Where someone has been in hospital for three weeks, it would be normal to close the care package and utilise resources elsewhere.

“We would normally expect to be informed when discharge from hospital is approaching, so that the appropriate level of home care can be assessed since an individual’s requirements may well have changed in the interim.

“In this case, it does not appear that we received this information.”