"Poor access to Physiotherapy services for my father"

My father was admitted to Clackmannanshire Community Hospital in late spring having been unable to manage in his own home. He is totally blind and has a degree of short term memory loss and confusion.

At home he had been able to walk unaided and could go up an down stairs without assistance. While in hospital he received no rehabilitation of any kind, and because he could not get about on his own due to his blindness, he sat in his chair all day every day.

He moved to a nursing home at which point I asked for a physiotherapy assessment. The physio concluded that he was not able to walk safely and apart from leaving some armchair exercises has had no further input. It has taken NHS Forth Valley three months to reply to my letter asking for a service for my father. The request has been refused.

In my view it is completely unacceptable to deny someone a service from which they could clearly benefit, wait until their condition deteriorates further and then use this deterioration to justify the initial refusal.

NHS Forth Valley has completely failed my father, showing a shocking lack of understanding of a holistic approach to personalised patient care.