WAR veteran Harry Southgate spent 37 years serving his country, but now he faces a new battle - to get his country to help him.

Rebecca Lefort

WAR veteran Harry Southgate spent 37 years serving his country, but now he faces a new battle - to get his country to help him.

The 85-year-old is suffering from dementia but his son Robert has faced a desperate year-long battle to get his sick father free continuing care in a nursing home on the NHS.

Robert, a police officer, launched his fight when he was told his father was not eligible for the free care, but found himself labelled by NHS Suffolk as an unreasonably persistent complainer and threatened with legal action himself - a threat which has since been removed.

When he appealed to the East of England Strategic Health Authority (SHA) over NHS Suffolk's initial refusal to pay for the care a new assessment of his father was ordered which is due to be carried out soon.

Robert wants to be as involved as possible, but feels he is being locked out by NHS Suffolk because he will not be allowed to attend the meeting deciding his father's fate.

Today Robert, who lives in Hertfordshire, said: “I'm disgusted at the way the elderly of this country are treated by the NHS.”

- For more on this story see tonight's Evening Star.