AN AMPUTEE is a prisoner in his own home because of the crisis in the health system.

Barry Osborne, 67, is the face of the bed blocking which is crippling the hospitals across Sussex.

Mr Osborne was discharged from hospital after a triple heart bypass and having his right leg removed above the knee.

Doctors at Royal Sussex County Hospital said he is well enough to return home, but his front door is reached by a stepped path, his bedroom is upstairs and he cannot manoeuvre his wheelchair into his bathroom.

Mr Osborne told The Argus: “I don’t want to be in hospital. Of course I would much rather be at home but it’s not suitable.”

Mr Osborne was told the hospital would have to send him home after dark on Tuesday night, until eventually the scared pensioner was allowed to stay a final night before being sent home on Wednesday morning.

Mr Osborne, who served in the RAF in the Falklands, had been in hospital three months before returning to an empty home.

Community support workers did visit him to help him switch his heating back on and deliver him some food, but he has now been left on his own.

He has to haul himself out of his wheelchair and prop himself up against the kitchen worktops to prepare food.

He has to crawl up his stairs to his bedroom on his bottom and fling himself out of his wheelchair in his hallway to reach the loo.

He said: “I understand that the hospitals and the staff are busy.

“But this is no way for one human being to treat another.”

Sussex hospitals have been dealing with an “unprecedented crisis”.

Patients have been facing huge delays to get seen in accident and emergency departments across Sussex.

Emergency patients who have been assessed cannot be admitted to wards because they are full.

However, patients like Mr Osborne who are deemed healthy enough to be sent home are filling hospital beds because there is not the adequate care in the community to support them.

A spokesman for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals said: “Mr Osborne no longer needs to be in hospital and everything has been done to ensure his safe return home.

“He has been fully assessed by our therapists to make sure he can cope at home.

"We have organised for a community support worker to assist him to switch on his heating and give him support to settle back into his home. 

"We have provided him with a food parcel, we organised transport to his home, he was offered clothing to wear if needed, and ongoing physiotherapy is available if required.”