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THEIR love survived the Nazis but now Hampshire care bosses may tear them apart. Second World War veteran Thomas Bashford, 82, and his wife Iris, 81, were supposed to be celebrating their diamond wedding this year - but now they fear they will not even be living together.

After suffering a number of health problems Tom has been admitted to Southampton General Hospital after a heart attack.

He has been told that once he leaves the hospital he will be entitled to live in a residential home - but his partner of more than 66 years would probably not.

Their case brings into sharp focus the fierce debate that has broken out about how we care for our elderly in the years to come.

Tom's condition is serious enough to warrant residential care but, despite being almost blind and having severe mobility problems, Iris may not be entitled to join him.

The Fawley grandparents met in 1942, just before Tom joined the Navy, in which he served aboard a minesweeper in the Mediterranean.

Tom took a picture of his 16-year-old bride-to-be Iris Cook with him to war and wrote letters whenever he had a moment to himself.

He returned in 1946 and theymarried two years later.

Speaking from his hospital bed he told the Daily Echo: "I feel pretty grim about the future. The war didn't split us up but now this could. I never thought I would see the day when I was separated from my wife.

"We have both worked our whole life, paying into the system, and I am not happy that we are being treated like this."

Iris, who worked in the sewing industry all her life, wept as she said: "I don't want to be without him. I am very upset and angry.

Apart from the war and hospital we have never been away from each other. I think things would have been different years ago.

Old people used to be treated differently."

The couple's daughter, Lynne Kotchie, said she was horrified when she was told the pair may have to live apart.

She has had one meeting with a team at the hospital made up of medical staff, Hampshire County Council social services and specialists to discuss her father's care.

Following the meeting, Mrs Kotchie said social services phoned her to suggest a residential home placement might be an option for her father. She said: "We are still trying to establish what we are entitled to. It was suggested Dad could go to a home, but funding would not be available forMum. If they have to split up, it will be like having a limb cut off for them. They just won't survive without each other.

"I don't know howMum is expected to get by without Dad. He is her eyes and she can barely move about at home without feeling her way around the furniture.

"They have paid into the system all their lives and it is appalling that the Government isn't prepared to look after them in their twilight years.

"We don't know how much time either of them has left and it is a very unfeeling society that would expect them to spend it apart. I think a serious review of the care service and how the Government spends our money is needed."

She went on to say that a friend of hers had just had to sell her dad's home to pay for his care.

"My parents don't own their own home so it was not an issue, but I know my friend's dad had always wanted to leave his home to his children and grandchildren and now he can't.

"It is terrible to spend your whole life buying your home and lose it just like that to pay for something you should get for free."

Lynne, her husband Neil, other family and friends and carers have to visit every day to cook, clean and make sure her mum takes the right pills. She said that in the past her mum had inadvertently drunk fabric softener thinking it was milk because her eyesight is so bad.

A Southampton University Hospital NHS Trust spokesman said no decision had yet been made and that all options would be looked at in full cooperation with the family.

She said: "A multi-disciplinary team of specialists will be working with the family and the individual to assess his needs and the best way of meeting them. Any decision made at these meetings would be passed to Hampshire Primary Care Trust or Hampshire County Council social services."

A Hampshire Primary Care Trust spokesman said it could not talk about individual cases but said it had not received referral from the hospital treatingMr Bashford as yet.

Councillor Felicity Hindson, Hampshire County Council's executive member for adult social care, said: "For many elderly people it is often a very confusing and worrying time when they find themselves in hospital wondering how life will be when they are discharged.

"At Hampshire County Council one of our priorities is to support people to help them live in their own homes for as long as possible.

"Following any decision by hospital staff to discharge a person from medical care our adult services staff work very closely with colleagues in the health service to determine the most appropriate levels of care.

"We always consult the individual and their family keeping them fully involved in the decision making process.

"Our top priority is always ensuring that any care arrangements which are eventually put in place meet an individual's specific needs and personal circumstances."

10:06am Sunday 18th May 2008

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