A WIDOW says she broke a promise to her sick husband to let him die at home after failing to receive sufficient support from their GP surgery.

June Chappell said she allowed her husband Neville to spend his final three days in a hospice instead of their home in Osbaldwick as he battled the lung cancer mesothelioma.

“This was heartbreaking for me because Neville wanted to die at home and I had given my solemn promise that his wish would be fulfilled,” she said.

She said she felt she could have continued to care for him at home, had there only been more calls and visits from doctors at the Unity Health surgery, providing the advice and reassurance she desperately needed.

Mrs Chappell said she was speaking out because she wanted to ensure other patients and their partners in a similar situation got the support they needed.”It’s too late for me but it might help someone else in the same position,”she said.

“I did get visits from Macmillan and community nurses but there were times when a phone call or visit from a GP would have been so helpful.

“For example, when Neville was in pain, I’m no healthcare professional and didn’t know whether to increase the morphine he was receiving or whether it would be dangerous.”

Mrs Chappell said that when Neville was diagnosed as suffering from terminal lung cancer last autumn, his consultant asked if they were being supported by their GP practice.

When she said she didn’t think so, the consultant wrote to the surgery to ask it to get involved with his care and asked her to make an appointment for him.

“I was told all appointments were booked and I should phone in two or three days to see if anything was available. I was furious.”

She was then phoned by a GP, and she told them she had no faith in the practice. The GP asked her to give them a chance and made a double appointment to see Neville, and she felt he was finally going to get the support he needed. But she claimed things then returned to the way they were.

“Both the district nurse and the Macmillan nurse asked for a GP to come out for a reassessment for Neville,” she said. “Nobody came.”

She said she eventually did get a GP to see him because his pain was becoming unbearable but a McMillan nurse then said she would like him to go into a hospice because he was so fragile and could do virtually nothing for himself.

“If I had had the support I needed I would have fought to keep him at home,” she said, adding that the care he received at the hospice was ‘excellent’ but she still felt guilty.

Unity Health said it knew Mrs Chappell well, having cared for her and listened to her concerns at a meeting earlier this year.
“We would again like to express our condolences to her and her family during this sad time,” it said in a statement. “When a patient is extremely poorly there are a number of professionals who are involved in their care and we try to work as a team to make the patient as comfortable as possible.”

GP partner Richard Wilcox said: “I visited Mrs Chappell at her home and we had a very detailed, open and honest discussion about the care her husband had received. She knows that we are working extremely hard to improve the services we offer to all our patients.” He said the practice encouraged patients to contact it directly if they had any issues over their care, and was particularly interested in hearing from those wanting to help it improve by joining its patient participation group.

Patients criticised Unity Health in the spring over huge delays in getting through to its new surgery, Kimberlow Hill, to make appointments, and it was later found ‘inadequate’ by the Care Quality Commission and placed in special measures. The practice said then its priority was to ‘roll up our sleeves,’ continue making improvements and focus on getting things right for its patients.