Welcome Home Denise

Published by Stephen Milward in Medical · Tuesday 04 Aug 2026 · 3 minutes
Tags: Welcome, Home, Denise, Home, Welcome, Community, Family, Lifestyle, Dementia

It's 05 May 2026. Denise is taken to hospital in a serious condition. We weren't to know then that she would be there for two months, fighting a variety of problems, which at times were very scary.

Denise has been cared for by the staff at King's Mill Hospital (KMH), Sutton-in -Ashfield, Nottinghamshire (i). The number of staff that have looked after her must be over 100. All have done so with care, skill, respect and love, not just for Denise but for all of us. They will always have our gratitude and love.

06 July 2026: We hope to welcome Denise back home this week. Preparations are advanced for that, including rearranging the house to accept a lot of equipment that will allow Denise to live at home safely. There are going to be challenges ahead and we know that. But the joy of having Denise home will be immense. She is looking forward to being home after such a long time. It will take significant time and work to enable Denise to be better than she is now, but with the help that she needs from family, occupational therapists, carers and some special equipment, I'm sure that Denise will get back a quality of life that seemed impossible just a few weeks ago.

09 July 2026: Denise has arrived home. It's a joyous day. Challenges will arrive, but we'll meet them. We face a very different time, but we'll be together.

11 July 2026: Denise has had to go back to hospital after falling very ill. It's a very stressful time for all of us, but Denise is very determined to overcome this. We all love her so much and I know what a fighter she is.

25 July 2026: Denise arrives home after two weeks in hospital. It would have been much longer, since she was waiting for her care package to be arranged. Today is 04 August 2026 and it still hasn't been arranged. When we left KMH, we were told that they had eighty-six patients in the same situation as Denise. We decided to bring Denise home and care for her ourselves, since leaving her in hospital was having a very bad effect on her. It's clear that the care system in broken. We'll see if Andy Burnham (ii) can fix it, as reported by CommunityCare, 31 July 2026 (iii). I hope he does, but he'll encounter many difficulties along the way, no doubt.

(i) Wikipedia: King's Mill Hospital

(ii) Wikipedia: Andy Burnham

(iii) CommunityCare 31 July 2026: Burnham plans to 'lift up' social care workforce to level of NHS