I have had carers supplied from the Home Support team run by Oxfordshire County Council for the past two and a half years to look after my very disabled husband three times a day.

This service is being run down and disbanded, much to the dismay of all its clients.

If someone is in hospital for more than a week this service will be replaced by a private firm of carers and can take quite a while to set up – meaning that the person they have been looking after will have to remain in hospital until this has been arranged, thus blocking a bed for someone else.

My husband, who is 78, was admitted to the John Radcliffe Hospital earlier this spring with a very bad infection.

I pleaded with the staff to get him home within a week, fearing we would lose our wonderful carers if he was in any longer.

I was worried sick about this, as well as my husband’s health.

He was sent home six days later, but his condition isn’t good and he should really still be in hospital.

A gentleman in the next bed had been in hospital for three months, waiting for a care package to be arranged. I wonder if any of the decision makers at the council have elderly relatives who have to suffer this trauma.

Which would be the more sensible and cost effective procedure: keeping the Home Support Service going or keeping a patient in hospital for months on end?

Name and address supplied Oxford