Tamworth coronavirus: Wife reunited with husband of 62 years with dementia after Tamworth hospital relents over visitor ban

Roger Hope was admitted to the hospital last Thursday, after breaking his pelvis in a fall.

His wife Ruth, originally banned from entering the hospital due to the pandemic, will now be permitted to visit for an hour a day, after health staff backed down.

"I felt I had to advocate for myself," she said.

"If we didn't nobody else was going to do it. They weren't going to make that decision on their own accord."

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Ex-academic Mr Hope has such severe dementia he can't feed himself, can't push the buzzer to get the attention of staff and can't make himself understood to most nurses without his wife's help.

Wife Ruth was originally asked by hospital staff to help care for Mr Hope. But on Saturday she was banned from even seeing him, after restrictions on visitors were tightened due to the Omicron variant wave of COVID-19.

Left "desperate" and concerned about the ability of an understaffed hospital to care for him, she contacted the Leader and Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson.

On Tuesday the hospital agreed to allow her to visit - once every other day.

After she threatened to take him out of the hospital the first day she wasn't allowed to enter, hospital staff agreed to allow her to visit daily.

"One hour a day I can live with, one hour a day he can live with. That at least gives me the opportunity to make sure his needs are taken care of and change his clothes, etc," she said.

The Hopes, who have been married for 62 years, saw each other for the first time since the fall on Tuesday. Mrs Hope said Roger was being well-cared for, had been fed and toileted, but hadn't been able to talk to anyone, and felt like he was imprisoned.

His first words to his wife were "inmate angry".

Mrs Hope said it was an exception, not a new rule.

"My only other concern is, yes, I have gained something for Roger and myself, but there is no guarantee of overflow to other patients. It's purely just on his personal situation," she said.

A spokeswoman for Hunter New England Health said the service won't comment on individual patients' cases.

The health district continues to follow NSW Health guidance regarding visitation, she said.

"Patients and families should discuss exemptions with the relevant treating team, so appropriate risk assessments can be undertaken and considered on a case by case basis," she said.

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