Bucket washes for 86-year-old with dementia as shower at Sussex Close flat never worked

Published: 13th May, 2011
by PETER GRUNER

A RETIRED Barts Hospital nurse tutor has to wash her 86-year-old husband, who suffers from dementia, using a bucket because a shower installed at her council home has never worked.

A former lecturer in health studies at the hospital and a leading charity worker, Monica Parris, 72, from Upper Holloway, devoted more than 50 years to the NHS.

But she says her retirement has been ruined in the past year because a walk-in shower, specially installed at her flat in Sussex Close to wash her husband, retired social scientist Hubert, leaks onto the bathroom floor and into the flat below.

Mrs Parris’s bath was ripped out last year when an occupational therapist advised that a sit-down shower would make life easier.

But the shower has not worked since it was installed in July last year. More than a dozen workmen contracted to housing agency Homes for Islington (HfI) have tried to repair the shower without success.

To add insult to injury, Mrs Parris, an Age Concern Islington trustee, said HfI had offered just £25 for her trouble. “Fortunately, I still have nursing skills so I know how to look after my husband. But it has been very difficult. I have to take hot water from the kitchen tap, sit him down and hand-wash him from a bucket. I make it as hygienic as possible.

“But I feel I’ve had enough. I feel burnt out with stress. I’ve spent my working life as a nurse, helping and comforting people. All I want is a piece of equipment to work. It’s a basic need. Is it too much to ask?”

Conservative Party campaigner Oriel Hutch­inson has taken up Mrs Parris’s case. 

Ms Hutchinson said: “Here’s a woman who devoted her life to helping others and is being treated with such disdain. It’s beyond belief that they can’t fix her shower.”

An HfI spokesman said: “The bathroom modifications required took longer than expected for a number of reasons, including health and safety issues and obtaining convenient access to the property. 

“We continue to work with residents, occupational therapy and our contractors to provide a bathroom that meets requirements.”