'NHS must rethink its cuts to a vital service'

I WANT to use my article today to let you all know about a local charity which for nearly 40 years has been providing a lifeline for older people but now faces imminent closure.

- Allison Gardner - MP for Stoke-on-Trent South

From October, Moorlands Home Link has been told it will lose its biggest grant and its main income - from the NHS, forcing it to close.

It means that countless elderly folk across the Staffordshire Moorlands - including those in Blythe Bridge and Tean in my constituency - will be left lonely and isolated, or be forced into care homes at enormous expense to them and taxpayers.

It's a crazy situation that is not only short-sighted but also one that will ultimately cost much more than it saves. Home Link has been changing lives for the better since 1986, providing a holistic service that crosses the boundary separating health provision and social care.

This separation is, of course, a false one because, as everyone knows, people's lives don’t belong in a single box. Health needs and social needs go together.

Typical of the way that Home Link functions is the story of pensioners Kate and Frank whose names I've changed to protect their identities.

For them everything changed when Frank was diagnosed with dementia.

In the space of a few short months, his condition grew so severe that Kate could never sleep for fear that he would come to harm during the night.

The future for looked bleak. As the days and weeks went by Frank's dementia posed a real risk. Panic and desperation set in.

But just when it seemed there was nowhere to turn, they found hope in Home Link.

For three days a week, Home Link sent their mini-bus to pick him up and take him to their day care centre in Cheadle.