Robert, 82, relies on carers who visit his bungalow in Studley
An elderly social housing tenant with dementia was left without heating or hot water for eight days as the freezing weather took hold.
Former farm worker Robert Knight, 82, relies on carers and the help of his friend John Sowerby, 74, as he lives with his condition at his Studley bungalow in Allen Close.
“We’ve been friends for 40 years, so I took him under my wing,” explained Mr Knight. “He has got carers who come in to do his cleaning, washing and give him his meals. I look after him and make sure everything is OK with him.”
Mr Sowerby contacted the Herald on Friday (12th January) after trying in vain to get landlord Orbit to fix the broken boiler for over a week.
He told us: “Fixing the heating of someone living with dementia should be Orbit’s number one priority. They don’t seem to understand the condition at all – what they go through and what other people who look after them go through. They kept fobbing me off for eight days – they didn’t seem to care until I contacted the Herald and then things started to move.”
He continued: “Bob doesn’t understand much – all he knows is it was very cold. It’s caused me stress as I’ve been on the phone trying to get it sorted for hours – every time I got through I’d get cut off.”
Rather than immediately fixing the boiler, Orbit had instead given Mr Knight a heater – this, said Mr Knight, proved they didn’t really understand what it’s like to have dementia.
“It was silly giving Bob a heater. He has dementia and didn’t know what it was or how it operated so he turned it off.”
After the Herald contacted Orbit, Mr Sowerby confirmed an engineer turned up later that day (Friday), and made some temporary repairs, before fully replacing the boiler for a new one on Monday (15th January).
Mr Sowerby pointed out that Orbit had wasted time and money – as an engineer had said it cost £500 to fix the old boiler before it was finally replaced a few days later.
Meanwhile, Orbit maintained they had tried to access the property without success. This is strongly disputed by Mr Sowerby as he says the only time he was unavailable to let contractors in was when he had a dental appointment, as he had made very clear to them.
An Orbit spokesperson said: “The welfare of our customers is our number one priority. We were made aware of an issue with the heating system at Allen Close, at which point our engineers attended and provided Mr Knight with temporary heaters whilst repairs could be scheduled and undertaken. Mr Knight has also had access to hot water via his electric shower throughout.
“Unfortunately, Mr Knight was unable to grant our contractors access to his home earlier this week and our engineers have attended this afternoon at Mr Knight’s preferred time.
“We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
On a final note, Mr Sowerby added: “The whole thing has been a terrible situation – Orbit need to prioritise vulnerable people. I hope by highlighting what has happened it helps others faced with a similar situation.”
