Red card and sent off to ‘unsafe’ hostel
Spinal injury victim punished by hospital for ‘disorderly conduct’ fight for a new home
A SPINAL injury victim is fighting eviction from a hospital where he claims he has been classed alongside violent and racist patients for refusing to move into a hostel he considers unsafe.
Neil Langan, 37, has been in the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore for four weeks after refusing to move into a wheelchair-adapted Camden Council hostel in Chester Road, Highgate.
Mr Langan, an electrician, has lived with his mother in Hillfield Road, West Hampstead, all his life but cannot return to her fourth-floor housing association flat after an injury on Christmas Eve 2007 left him in a wheelchair.
“I woke up and I could barely walk,” he said. “By Christmas night I was being operated on. Nobody can tell me what happened but the result is that I will have to fight to walk again.”
After months of treatment and rehabilitation at the RNOH he was ready for discharge this January when the hospital contacted the council about his future accommodation.
They offered him a place at the Chester Road hostel, but when Mr Langan refused it he entered a bureaucratic limbo. The hospital ordered him to leave, but the council gave his hostel place to someone else.
He has been given a “red card” by the hospital under a national scheme in which disruptive patients can be denied anything but emergency care as a sanction for persistent misbehaviour or for placing staff at risk. Mr Langan, who is full of praise for the treatment he received at the RNOH, believes the reaction is a disproportionate response by hospital administrators.
“I have not once raised my voice, been abusive or racist,” he said. “What I have done is refused letters to vacate the premises. With the red card I’m an outlaw, I’m worse than a leper.”
Letters sent to Mr Langan and seen by the New Journal show that he received a yellow card on January 14 – and was notified of his red card the same day.
On both occasions he was punished for “non-compliance to trust policies, procedure or agreed patient contracts”.
As the letters make clear, a red card places him in the same category of “disorderly conduct” alongside patients guilty of “violent, racist, abusive behaviour or failure to comply with patient contracts”.
The result is that very few hospital services, including rehabilitation and physiotherapy, are available to him. Because he has a red card, the hospital are not obliged to help him in any way beyond basic medical care. Mr Langan says he understands their desire to use the bed that he is blocking by his refusal to move, but claims he should not have to go where he does not feel safe.
The RNOH is a national centre of excellence for the treatment and research of back injuries and diseases. The hospital trust cannot discuss the case because of patient confidentiality issues, an RNOH press official said this week. She confirmed, however, that “the trust is currently seeking legal advice regarding discharge of a patient from the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital”.
Camden Council, meanwhile, said it is seeking suitable properties for Mr Langan to move into, but has been hampered by the requirement to make them wheelchair-adapted and Mr Langan’s desire to live as close as possible to his mother in West Hampstead.
The Chester Road hostel is adapted for disabled access. A council occupational therapist and a hospital inspector have both passed it as suitable for Mr Langan. The council’s press official said it was “a safe and supportive environment for all residents whatever their support needs” and the Town Hall has offered to adapt it further.
But Mr Langan disagrees, arguing that the aids he trained to use at RNOH are not included at the hostel, undermining his independence. He is also concerned about the other residents.
A council spokeswoman said: “We would suggest that Mr Langan gives serious consideration to offers of temporary accommodation made to him, such as Chester Road, whilst the council continues to work with him to find a permanent home for him when he is ready to live independently.
“The demand for wheelchair-accessible rooms at Chester Road is very high, thus any such rooms that become available are unlikely to remain available indefinitely.”
Source: http://www.thecnj.co.uk/camden/2009/021209/health021209.html