AN ELDERLY woman was left to lie in a hospital bed for nearly four months after catalogue of errors by social services.

The 82-year-old from Chatham, who does not want to be named, was left languishing in hospital while social services failed to secure funding for a nursing home place.

The pensioner's family have spoken out about their anger and frustration at the way she has been treated.

Bernie Pinner, the woman’s son-in-law, said: "I cannot believe how we were treated and much pain can they (social services) are allowed to cause."

The failings started when the pensioner, who also suffers from Alzheimers, fell over, broke her arm and needed hospital treatment.

She was admitted from her warden controlled, sheltered accommodation home in the middle of January.

Mr Pinner said: "My mother-in-law is frail and needs 24-hour nursing care. We were assigned a case worker and thought everything would be pretty straightforward."

The elderly lady was assessed and her family were told her mental health was fine, despite her suffering from Alzheimers.

Mr Pinner added: "Luckily my wife was at her mother's bedside when this the assessment happened. She asked her mother a few questions which proved she had no idea where she was and that she had had required surgery. The case worker then agreed that a home was an answer."

The family choose an appropriate nursing home in Grange Road, Gillingham, and were told funding for her care would be granted before the end of Easter.

Mr Pinner said: "We kept ringing and asking if the funds had been granted. We were told it had been so we started taking my mother-in-laws possessions to her room at the home.

"We were shocked to go back to the hospital to visit her to be told by the ward sister that she could not leave until funding had been granted.

"We got onto the case worker, who had already told us funding would be fine, to be told the home is not registered to take the elderly and social services would not be able to pay for all the cost of her to stay at the home."

It took at least another four weeks of wrangling with the Medway Council before they agreed partly to fund the woman’s place.

Mr Pinner added: "We have had so much stress over this we don't want any other family to have to go through what we went through to get our elderly relative into a nursing home.

"We kept being told my mother-in-laws case would be reviewed week after week, but it wasn't. Eventually she left hospital at the end of April, about 16 weeks after admission.

"There was mistake after mistake with her case. We just cannot believe the pain and anxiety it caused us all. If it were not for our persistence with the matter, perhaps she would still be laying in a hospital bed now. We've never even had an apology from social services."

A Medway Council spokesman said: "We must apologise for any distress caused to the elderly woman and her family.

"Every year Medway Council places over 400 people in nursing or residential care and it is important we get the procedures correct and ensure the correct funding is in place. It is clear that some procedural errors were made in getting her the bed of choice.”