A desperate daughter says her family are heartbroken every time they leave their Alzheimer's-stricken mum in hospital for another day.
Jacqueline Clark has spent the last six months in Hairmyres Hospital after suffering a massive stroke whilst recovering from COVID.
The episode has left the 68-year-old unable to speak and paralysed down her right side.
Yet despite needing no further treatment, a delayed discharge has left the gran-of-three languishing in a hospital bed for 10 weeks, with her family told no suitable care package is available to suit her complex needs.
At their "wit's end," her anxious daughter Jennifer Connelly told Lanarkshire Live how the family have been left feeling helpless with "nowhere to turn".
The 34-year-old told us : "On March 18 mum had a massive stroke whilst sleeping.
"That left her paralysed down her right side and left with no verbal communication.
"The doctors decided there was no further treatment she would receive in hospital and she was given a discharge date of July 4. That was 10 weeks ago now and we are still no further forward to get her home."
Jacqueline lives at home with her husband Ian and needs the help of carers four times a day - but the family have been told no care package is available to facilitate this.
This week marks six months since Jacqueline was taken into hospital and, following an Alzheimer's diagnosis five years ago, her family fear her mental state will deteriorate the longer she remains in hospital.
"My dad, myself and my younger brother just want her home," Jennifer added.
"Her mental health is deteriorating rapidly. She gets very confused and anxious.
"We're struggling to get her to engage with us and she spends most our visiting times upset.
"It’s heartbreaking - no family should have to go through this."
Alzheimer’s requires constant brain activity to minimise the neurons in the brain from dying.
The family fear that, with the stress on our NHS and lack of services available, the required stimulation and activity Jacqueline's brain needs is missing.
Jennifer praised the "incredible job" NHS staff have done in caring for Jacqueline, and preparing her for life at home, but says her family "can't understand" why she is still taking up a hospital bed when she should be at home with her loving family.
Jennifer and her brother Alastair, 32, both work full-time and dad Ian, 66, relies on the support of carers due to the level of care Jacqueline needs.
She continued: "We have the garage converted into a room that will be suitable for her and for carers to come in and support mum, we just need a discharge date to stop her deteriorating any further.
"We are in contact with the hospital and social work daily and are unfortunately getting nowhere. We just don't get why there is no support for her.
"How long can this go on for?
"We just want our mum home where she belongs."
Soumen Sengupta, director of health and social care for South Lanarkshire, told us: “We have been contending with unprecedented demand over recent months and are operating at full capacity right across the area.
“Our community teams and hospital colleagues continue to work closely together to provide safe patient and service-user care, and will only discharge patients when it is appropriate to do so.
“Unfortunately, this extreme pressure on our services can mean there are occasions when we are unable to safely discharge patients to their homes as quickly as they, their families or we would like.”
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