‘I was at breaking point’: Carer highlights NHS failings after nursing dying ex-husband
Diane Edwards is exhausted and in mourning. She has agreed to speak to Sky News just 10 days after her ex-husband’s death.
She stands in the bathroom where they would spend hours through the night together as he battled stage 4 terminal bowel cancer.
“Sometimes I’d put him back into bed and the blood would be pouring out,” she says.
“It’s horrific. It isn’t the same person you knew or you were married to. They’re not the same people.”
Mick was blind and needed assistance moving around his home. He had been suffering for months and opportunities to diagnose his condition were missed.
After he was told he had cancer, carers and charity support staff would visit to help the family during the day but Diane says they were insufficient and lacked the medical training needed.
“They weren’t medical carers. He deteriorated even more and I was on my knees, I was at breaking point.
“The tears were rolling down my cheek, sometimes I didn’t know I was crying. I was worn out and I thought ‘if I don’t do something about myself, I’m going to end up in hospital’. I never slept. Your body gets used to no sleep.”
Mick Edwards
One year ago, complications in Mick’s condition meant he required hospital treatment.
This time he was discharged with a fast-track care package known as NHS Continuing Healthcare or CHC. It’s funded by the NHS for people assessed as having health and social care needs caused by a medical issue.
Around 12 weeks after leaving hospital, Mick was remotely assessed online by NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, which found he needed social care instead of palliative care.
Diane says Mick didn’t have any family present at this meeting, only staff from a care home who were now looking after him.
It left the family worried they would have to sell his home to pay for the palliative care they believed he needed.
“Mick couldn’t cope with a video link,” Diane says. “He’d lost his confidence, he’d had falls, he was deteriorating, so he couldn’t have coped.
“I had to tell Mick he’d lost his funding. He got upset over it. He didn’t eat for a day because of it. It’s hard, there’s nothing out there for you for help, there’s no backup, I wish there was.”
Diane and Mick Edwards on their wedding day
The Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin NHS Trust offered its sympathies and condolences to Mick’s family, telling Sky News its assessments are carried out in line with the national framework, which allows providers to use a number of approaches including face-to-face or video-teleconferencing.
The assessment teams recommend whether patients have an unmet health need over and above what a local authority can provide. Every individual has the right to appeal, the trust says.
The national framework also says it is best practice for assessors to meet with the individual being assessed and that there are concerns such CHC assessments can be a postcode lottery.
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Research by the Nuffield Trust thinktank found that nationally between January and March of this year, only around a fifth of people who underwent a CHC assessment were eligible and that approvals varied widely, from over 40% in Leicestershire to just 7.3% in Gloucestershire.
Nuffield Trust fellow Rachel Hutchings and her team acknowledge there is little public understanding around the CHC process and that there can be many complex reasons contributing to the disparities, such as the demographics of the population served by the respective trusts.
But she says the inconsistencies in how funding is allocated and assessed are a concern.
She told Sky News: “There are a lot of pressures within the social care system more generally, we know that long-term reform is definitely needed, but so far we’ve had very little progress on that, but in the short-term there’s a real urgent crisis facing social care as well and we see a lot of these challenges kind of exemplified within CHC.”
Rachel Hutchings from Nuffield Trust
NHS England told Sky News that “anyone eligible for continuing healthcare should receive a package of support that is tailored to their individual needs and preferences”.
It continued: “The process of assessment for continuing healthcare and decision-making should also be centred around the individual, taking into account their needs, or their representative’s view where appropriate, and they should be empowered and assisted to participate.”
Mick’s CHC funding was eventually reinstated six weeks later after a social worker and a local GP intervened.
But Diane says she believes her ex-husband’s final days are indicative of how patients nearing the end of life are treated and that Mick would have opted for assisted dying had it been available.
Cases of winter flu are “rising rapidly” – with England’s health boss urging those eligible to get vaccinated.
Cases are highest among those aged five to 14, with 16.9% of tests positive for flu – up from 11.5% last week.
Sharing the data on X, England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said: “Influenza is now rising rapidly. Antiviral flu medicines can now be used in primary care.”
“If you are eligible please get vaccinated.”
The number of cases is in line with the 2022 to 2023 season, which peaked on 20 December, with 33% of tests positive for flu.
Last year, the peak was much smaller – with 16.7% of tests positive – and came more than a month later, on 27 January.
Data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) indicates while influenza rates are increasing, they remain at “low activity levels”.
Figures show the positive return rate for flu tests was 7.9% on 27 November, the most recent date for which data is available.
Flu is one of the illnesses circulating in the UK that have been dubbed the “quad-demic”.
COVID-19, flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and norovirus are all expected to peak at different times during the season.
Dr Alexander Allen, consultant epidemiologist at UKHSA, said: “Flu is the cause of the rise in winter illnesses that we’ve seen in the past week, with emergency department attendances also increasing.
“Anyone still eligible for the flu, COVID-19 or RSV vaccines should get booked in ahead of the busy winter period, when we expect flu, and other respiratory viruses to spread between people more easily.
“Vaccination offers the best defence against these diseases, and now is the time to get protected before Christmas.”
THERE ARE HINTS THIS SEASON COULD BE A BAD ONE
Flu season is upon us once again. The big question, not just for anyone looking forward to a healthy Christmas break but for a creaking NHS which can be crippled by a severe flu season, is: how bad will it be?
The Chief Medical Officer Sir Chris Whitty took to social media to remind all those who are eligible to come forward for a flu jab. This is a sensible reminder in any given year – but there were some hints in the data he shared that this season might be a hard one.
Compared to last year flu cases have been rising faster earlier. In the last couple of weeks, the number of flu tests coming back positive has increased sharply. The speed of the rise is in line with the increase seen in the 2022-23 flu season.
No flu season is the same – the severity can vary due to the strains of flu circulating, the level of vaccination in the community, and the weather – but the 2022-23 season was, according to recent analysis, the worst in the UK in five years.
There are some other concerning signs – flu cases appear to be highest among school aged children– despite the fact vaccine uptake in this group is the highest it’s been.
For the time being at least, infection and hospitalisation rates in the most vulnerable groups – the very young and the elderly — remain low, although they are increasing.
The advice, as it is every season is for anyone who is eligible for a flu jab – children from 2 to 11, pregnant women, everyone over 65, vulnerable groups and health and social care workers – should get a flu jab if they haven’t already had one.
Australia has worst flu season on record
Australia has experienced its worst flu season on record.
Figures from Australia’s National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System showed 358,256 laboratory-confirmed cases of flu.
This beat 2019’s previous high of 313,615 cases and comes amid a declining rate in flu vaccinations.
Pic: iStock
How can you protect yourself?
You can catch the flu all year round, but it is especially common in winter.
The NHS says symptoms include: a sudden high temperature, an aching body, feeling exhausted, a dry cough, a sore throat, headache and difficulty sleeping.
“Vaccines work against the quad-demic,” Dr David Lloyd, a GP, previously told Sky News.
In fact, by getting vaccinated you halve your risk of catching any of the four illnesses, he said.
The NHS provides vaccinations against three of the four illnesses; flu, COVID-19 and, as of September this year, RSV.
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The flu vaccine is offered on the NHS every year in autumn and early winter. You can get it for free if you are over 65, have a long-term health condition, are pregnant, live in a care home, are a carer for someone, or live with someone with a weakened immune system.
Front line health and social care workers can also get a flu vaccine through their employer.
Analysis of the latest NHS vaccination data showed 335 vaccinations were given per minute for COVID, flu and RSV on average from 30 September to 17 November.
This works out to around 3.4 million vaccinations a week.
Weather warnings have been issued across the UK for strong winds of up to 80mph and heavy rain over the next few days.
A Met Office yellow warning for gusty conditions – 65-75mph in places – begins from 4pm today in north and northwest Scotland until Thursday morning.
That is followed by a second warning for strong and gusty winds on Thursday and Friday with “disruption possible” on the roads and railways.
Get the five-day forecast where you are
It covers an area of the UK from Northern Ireland, extending across parts of Scotland, north Wales, northern England, the north Midlands and East Anglia.
Two wind warnings have been issued for Wednesday in northern Scotland and a larger area of the UK for Thursday. Pic: Met Office
Inland gusts could hit between 40-50mph but along exposed coasts through the North Channel and Irish Sea it might reach 60-70mph.
Forecasters also predict heavy showers at times, until the warning expires at 6am on Sunday.
The Met Office advises, those on the coast, to “stay safe during stormy weather by being aware of large waves”.
A third warning for strong winds and heavy rain also comes into force – for England and Wales – from Friday afternoon.
Forecasters are predicting these winds “may quite widely gust to around 40-50mph” but “perhaps locally nearer 80mph”.
This could cause difficult driving conditions, travel disruption and flooding in places, it has warned.
Around 15-25mm (0.6-1in) of rain may fall quite widely, but “exposed higher ground in the north and west – particularly parts of Wales – could see closer to 50-70mm (2-2.7in) and are at risk of flooding.
UK flooding risk returns
The Met Office said there is a slight chance of damage to buildings, homes and businesses being flooded, difficult driving conditions, road closures and power cuts.
Some snow on higher ground above about 200m (656ft) is also predicted.
Around the UK, shipping areas have been warned of intense winds.
Two areas – Faeroes and Bailey – are on alert for storm force 10 and the risk of violent storm force 11, which involves gusts of 69 knots (79mph).
That would be ranked as the second highest level, just below hurricane force.
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Concerns after Storms Bert and Conall
Several communities are still recovering from damaging flooding caused by Storm Bert between 22 – 25 November.
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Businesses ‘destroyed’ by Storm Bert
Winds of more than 80mph were recorded across the UK during the height of the storm.
The Met Office says the weekend of 23-24 November was “exceptionally wet” across South Wales and South West England, with more than 150mm (5.9in) falling in some upland areas.
Storm Bert caused the River Taff to burst its banks and flood homes in Pontypridd. File pic: PA
On 23 November, the average amount of rainfall across the UK was 24mm (1in) making it the wettest day since October 2020.
Among dozens of flood warnings that were issued, a rare severe flood warning – meaning a danger to life – was put in place for the River Nene near Northampton.
The Billing Aquadrome was badly flooded by the River Nene during Storm Bert. File pic: PA
Storm Bert was followed by Conall on 27 November which dropped up to 30mm (1.18in) of rain across southern coastal counties of the UK.
It did cause some flooding, but the Met Office says the disruption was more isolated than Bert.
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