Mum and daughter forced to live in HOSPITAL for 15 months while waiting for a council home at cost of £150k to taxpayers
Around 100 patients could have made use of the room in Barnet Hospital where Ruth Kidane, 21, and Mimi Tebeje, 50, have been living
A MUM and daughter have been living in a hospital room for 15 months while waiting for a council home.
Ruth Kidane, 21, was admitted in Barnet, North London, last year and her mother Mimi Tebeje, 50, moved in with her.
They were forced into their “hotel stay” because a council has failed to find them a flat back home in Grimsby.
A hundred patients have missed out on a bed due to their 15-month hospital stay. The shambles over rehoming Ruth Kidane, 21, and Mimi Tebeje, 50, has also cost taxpayers more than £150,000.
Ruth, who is disabled and uses a motorised scooter, was admitted to Barnet Hospital, North London, in July last year for unknown reasons.
Mum Mimi moved into a bed next to her daughter’s in a small room on a general ward. Within a few weeks doctors declared Ruth fit for discharge. But the pair are still there because another tenant was moved into their council-owned flat in Grimsby.
North East Lincolnshire Council has yet to find them a new home. Barnet Council says it cannot help as the pair are not registered there. The hospital continues to cover their living costs.
The average inpatient stays just under five days — meaning Ruth’s room could have been used by 100 people. Patient Concern’s Joyce Robins said: “This case is shocking, disgraceful. Apart from the incredible cost, it is hugely unfair to others. I can’t understand why the hospital would let this continue. Their job is to make people better not offer a free B&B.”
Ben Ramanauskas, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, added: “People should not be using the cash-strapped NHS as a free hotel service.”
Tory Andrew Murrison, a trained naval doctor, added: “Hospital beds are very valuable assets and should be kept for those who are ill.”
The Sun Says
IT beggars belief that a mum and daughter have lived in a hospital room for a whole 15 months.
A hundred patients have missed out on a bed because North East Lincolnshire District Council has been unable to find Mimi Tebeje and daughter Ruth Kidane a home. The muddle has cost London’s Barnet Hospital £150,000.
Maybe someone in authority could find the gumption to act before the pair’s NHS B&B becomes their retirement home.
Ruth and Mimi’s room has a bed, chair, TV and sink and they are served two meals a day. Sources say Ruth has enrolled in an art and design course and gets a taxi three days a week to the college.
She often posts on Instagram, referring to “UK Fashion Lifestyles Beauty Disability”. She adds: “If you don’t love yourself how is anyone going to love you back.”
She has also shared photos from her room, and on days out with her mum in London.
Witnesses claim Mimi gets mail delivered to the room and has clothes firm ASOS deliver to the front desk. The pair previously lived in a specially-adapted ground-floor flat in Grimsby. The current tenant said he moved in at the start of the year.
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North East Lincolnshire Council said: “We have a statutory duty to work with people who find themselves homeless, offering help and support to get them back into accommodation. If the women return to the area, we will provide them with accommodation as is our duty.”
Hospitals and trusts can obtain possession orders to remove patients from a bed. There were 413 such orders agreed by courts in 2016.
Royal Free Hospital Trust, which runs Barnet, has not issued any legal proceedings.
The Sun was not allowed to enter hospital to contact the pair. Bosses refused to speak to them on our behalf. Relatives did not respond to attempts to make contact.
Boss flat rent-free
A TOP NHS boss is living rent-free in a flat owned by a hospital’s charity despite his huge salary.
Professor Marcel Levi is paid £265,000 a year as head of University College London Hospital with the free home also included.
His two-bed flat in Camden, North West London, is owned by the UCLH Charity. Similar homes in the area would cost around £3,000 a month.
UCLH’s interim chairman Dr Harry Bush said: “Professor Levi has a private arrangement with UCLH Charity regarding his accommodation. The charity is a separate organisation to the NHS Trust.”
The charity could not be reached for comment.
The revelation came as the Charity Commission said it expected groups to explain why money was spent in certain areas.
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