OAP, 82, forced to make 200-mile round trip in a taxi to see her dementia-stricken husband after NHS moves him
Devoted wife says: 'I don't think it is worth being here if I can't see him any more'
AN 82-year-old wife is being forced to make a 200-mile round trip to see her dementia-suffering husband because of NHS shortages in their home town.
Marjorie Bazley, who is suffering from depression, and husband Eric, also 82, have been married for 63 years.
Until April, Mr Bazley was being treated at Furness General Hospital in their town of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, where his wife could easily visit him.
But now NHS chiefs say their local trust does not have suitable facilities – so he will have to be moved to The Priory in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, where he can receive special monitoring.
Mrs Bazley told : “'I don't think it is worth being here if I can't see him any more.
“We have been married 63 years and this is what they do.
“I am suffering with depression. I still love the bones off him. I know inside there's somebody still there. That's what keeps me going. He still knows me.”
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Mrs Bazley says she cannot afford to travel the new longer journey and will only be able to make an NHS-funded journey in a taxi once a fortnight.
She added that she’s lost three-and-a-half stone with the stress of the problem with her husband, a former engineer with defence giant BAE.
Mrs Bazley is too unwell to use public transport and a taxi fought for by Labour MP John Woodcock can only be used once a fortnight.
She added: “I still love him the same as I did when I first met him.
“I just give him a kiss and say 'Right, I'm taking this washing home, I'll bring it back.'
He gives me a kiss, and off I go. And then when I get outside I have a good cry.”
The Sunday People reported that 5,400 patients with mental health problems were moved from their local area for treatment last year – 90 per cent because of bed shortages.
A Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust spokesman told Sunday People: “Sometimes, regrettably, we have to find placements for people in suitable accommodation further away.
“Cumbria just doesn't have the variety and numbers that we would like all of the time for people to be discharged into.”
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