Carlo Zamboni used to climb the Scottish Highlands during school holidays.
Today, getting across his tiny flat is a mission for the retired teacher. Aged 70, he is on the NHS waiting list for a hip operation and a diagnosis to confirm the Parkinson’s disease suggested by the tremors in his hands.
We were speaking to him as NHS England said it planned to free up space by treating up to 50,000 elderly and vulnerable patients in “virtual settings” in their homes.
Three months ago, a fall put Carlo in the hospital.
“I fell in a cemetery, I lost my balance for some reason,” he said. “I was suspected of possibly developing Parkinson’s disease nine months earlier, so I was taken to hospital.”
After a week he was discharged to the reality of Britain’s overwhelmed health and care system; a welfare trap for those, like Carlo, who are not sick enough to be in hospital but not poor enough to qualify for welfare.
“I thought I hadn’t been satisfactorily cured or knew what was wrong with me, because they couldn’t diagnose or test for Parkinson’s,” she said.
“You can feel the pressure to get people out of the hospital. I totally understand the crisis, but it’s a crisis we could have planned for. And we didn’t.”
Image: Carlo says NHS ‘promise’ should be kept
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Carlo is not alone. His brother comes to help, he has been supported by charities and the local church food bank, and a district nurse visits once a week to check a catheter, the legacy of a colon lapsed
However, he does not meet the requirements for social assistance. Modest savings and a possible inheritance put him above the earnings threshold.
The council has installed wall railings and a rope railing at the top of the stairs to his flat, but the 400m walk to the pharmacist still takes an hour and leaves him exhausted.
How to meet the needs of people like Carlo, who live with multiple morbidities, is one of the fundamental challenges facing the health service in a crisis like no other.
One of the reasons emergency services are overwhelmed is because a fifth of beds are occupied by people who could be at home if only they could be safely discharged. This winter has seen a lot of pressure to speed up that process.
With social care decimated by low pay and staff shortages, NHS England wants to increase the use of technology, prescribing wearable devices to vulnerable people so they can be monitored remotely from home instead of a precious hospital bed
Carlo says the “hospital at home” plan could help. “It’s a possibility worth exploring and experimenting with, but there’s no substitute for real people,” he told us.
What he really wants, though, is for the government to deliver on its NHS commitment.
“I hope the NHS stays true to its principles and I hope people have faith in the NHS.
“Our generation was promised care from the cradle to the grave. And I hope that promise is fulfilled, for generations to come.”