Would it really have been better to take her to hospital? Would the hospital staff have been aware of the issues, and dealt with them as competently as you did? Would they have known that she was sleeping on her sofa because she could not get up her stairs, that she was too scared to open her own door, that Why would someone refuse to go to hospital? Well, I believe that, while anyone is permitted a trip in an ambulance if they demand it, they are then charged for the privilege. I may be wrong, but if I am, then it's probably a common misconception. And then the stay in hospital will be deeply unpleasant, even traumatic. Mostly you'll spend it on hard chairs in a cold waiting room, in a strange place surrounded by scary, aggressive drunks. You'll sleep a high bed that you might fall out of, with a cold metal frame. Everything will be hard, clinical, sharp, loud, bright, cold, fast, and uncaring, not like the soft, warm, familiar and unthreatening furnishings at home. And bad things happen there - not just MRSE, though that is a risk. You go in with a bad back and come out diagnosed with a deadly ailment and a leg chopped off. People with the power to get you "put in a home" will examine you, will judge your fitness to survive in society, and may find you wanting. Is that a typical picture of UK hospitals? Maybe not, but it's probably a typical picture of people's fears of them.