Hospital ordeal ends for Sidley woman, 90

But her ordeal ended suddenly when her family succeeded in their bid to secure funding for her discharge.

Iris White, of Turkey Road, was admitted on March 4 when she suffered a kidney infection and became dehydrated.

She has been there ever since - although medically discharged - because there is apparently no available fund to release her.

Her daughter Carol Nicholson of Glovers Lane contacted the Observer this week to highlight her mother's bid to take up the room at Ancaster Court in Hastings Road which has been earmarked since May.

She said: "She is very distressed. We nearly lost her twice in that hospital. She is just languishing. It is like she is in prison now. I am not knocking the nurses because they have been really nice to her.

"She is so troubled. I am frightened she is going to die in there. I am so angry. It's a real fight now."

When asked for comment, a spokesman for the county council said they were "very sympathetic" to Iris' situation, and funding would be made available "as soon as possible".

And Carol arrived home on Wednesday to discover her mother was being discharged the next day, after the necessary funding was granted.

She said: "It's funny it should happen now, when we've been arguing for seven months. It seems a bit of a coincidence."

The family hope this resolution will help relieve the distress Iris has faced in recent months.

Carol said her mother, who has Parkinsons Disease, was treated successfully for a urine infection. She was transferred to Murrey Ward, but contracted the stomach bug Clostridium Difficile after a few days.

She said: "She was so very ill, we thought we would lose her.

"Each day she was unable to eat, she was put on drips. This went on for several months - by now she was in a side room - and we had to put on apron and gloves every day when we visited. She would tell me she was dying.

"She was shut away in that little room for four months - with no stimulation at all."

In May, Carol was told by social services that her mother had been granted a nursing home place. Since then, bags have been packed and waiting in the corner of her living room ready for the day her mother can move in.

Carol and her partner Jim Musselwhite are astonished that Iris cannot be released despite the high cost of keeping a patient there, not to mention the cost of keeping a nursing home room free and maintaining Iris' flat.

She said: "They want me to release the flat, but I won't until she is in the nursing home. She would not have any address if I did that."

Jim said: "I can't see the logic in all this money being thrown down the drain to keep people in hospital ... society has got to the stage now where murderers and criminals are given better treatment than our elderly and sick."

The stress of the situation is affecting the couple, both 65. Carol visited daily for more than four months; when Jim is working, she has to pay 24 for the return taxi trip to the Conquest.

Her brother Graham Lewin lives in Southampton and is "always agitated and worried."

Jim said: "We are both quite busy people involved in a lot of things but our lives are on hold. We cancelled a cruise because it was not possible to go abroad. At this time in our lives we should be thinking of being able to relax and have a little time to ourselves."

Iris herself has written down her feelings about being kept inside the hospital.

She wrote: "I am always sat in the corner, like little Jack Horner, every day from early morning and I'm here all day long."

Carol said: "She was always such a very jovial nice little person but this has stolen her identity. Now she has got nothing. She pleads with me to get her out of there."

David Townsley, acting chief executive for East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, described the level of delayed discharges from hospital as a "disgrace" in an internal letter to consultants passed on to the Observer by a source.

It is estimated 80 beds were blocked by patients waiting needlessly in hospital at the end of the first week in August. More than 60 of those beds were taken up by patients under the care of social services.

A spokesman for the Adult Social Care department at East Sussex County Council said: "This issue is part of the wider problem of delayed discharge from hospital which requires increased resources from central government.

"We are continuing to work with health colleagues to find the best way of dealing with the current difficulties working with the resources we have available."