Health chiefs reunite couple but take stepdaughter's job

Published on Friday 9 October 2009 10:53

A DEVOTED elderly couple were delighted to be reunited by health chiefs – only to discover the move will cost his stepdaughter her job.

Frail Charles Peterson, 88, had been told he could not move into the nursing home a mile from where he lived in Dunbar because his stepdaughter works there.

Instead his 82-year-old wife Margaret had to make a 26-mile round-trip to visit him in a North Berwick home.

The couple were thrilled when NHS Lothian appeared to reverse their original decision by offering him a place at Dunbar's Belhaven Nursing Home, and he moved in yesterday.

But their joy turned to despair when they learned the health board were insisting his stepdaughter, Katie Fairgrieve, would have to leave the home, where she has worked for several years.

They say that moving Mr Peterson in would create a conflict of interest for Ms Fairgrieve, 59, and she will have to transfer to another home.

Mrs Peterson said: "With the news that he was coming back we were all so happy, and now this. I haven't even had the courage to tell him yet.

"I couldn't believe they were letting him move back to Dunbar after all this time. Bureaucratic red tape seems to be blind to the heartbreak of two people who love each other."

The fiasco began when Mr Peterson was transferred from the high dependency ward of Belhaven 11 months after being admitted there with a stroke at the end of last year.

Since then his wife has been fighting to have him returned as the journey to North Berwick was virtually impossible for her.

It is understood the family's case has been raised with the Royal College of Nurses. NHS Lothian said they were unable to comment on the status of Ms Fairgrieve's employment at the home, but added: "We are delighted that Mr Peterson is now a patient at Belhaven Hospital."