£50,000 nursing costs refunded
Oct 19 2007 by Audrey Barton, The Journal
A NORTH family who sold their elderly mother’s home to finance her care yesterday told how they won a refund of her £50,000 nursing fees.
Sandra Miller, of Jarrow, South Tyneside, has now been reimbursed for three years of her mother’s care home fees, which cost around £400 each week.
The 56-year-old, who works for Age Concern, watched her mother deteriorate with a form of dementia needing 24 hour nursing care.
The family had to sell her two bedroom house in Jarrow, which had been in the family for more than 40 years, to pay for the 79-year-old’s round the clock specialist care, after the means-testing system stated she must pay her own fees.
But last year, Mrs Miller proved her mother fitted the NHS Continuing Care criteria, which gives free health care covered by the NHS for people with long-term illness.
“We fought for what we thought were our rights and we won,” she said.
“If mum had cancer she would have been taken care of by our NHS. Dementia is a health problem but it is not recognised that way. People are being told they have to self fund when that is not the case.”
Mrs Miller lost her mother four years ago at the age of 82 after three years in nursing care.
Her family were devastated when she had to leave the home she had shared with her husband for 47 years.
“You are mentally exhausted when your parent has dementia. It was nothing to do with bundling her into a home. Her consultant advised us that mum needed 24 hour nursing care, and would have to go into a nursing home, not a residential home.”
Now Mrs Miller has recouped the money lost from the sale of her family’s house after she approached South Tyneside Primary Care Trust with her claim.
“My parents had worked hard all of their lives, paying into a system they truly believed in. Proud of our National Health Service. Proud of buying the council house they had lived in for 40 years.
“The sad part of all of these cases is that it really is not about the money, it is the great injustice of the system.”
Although she was happy with the way the health trust guided her through the process, she wants to prevent other families selling their homes to fund nursing care home fees unnecessarily.
She said: “I am angry that people are still not aware that they can fight against having to sell their family home.
“If they can prove that their loved one fits the Continuing Care criteria, then the cost of their care has to be covered by the NHS.”
Kathryn Dimmick, Locality Lead (Provider Services) for NHS South of Tyne and Wear, said: “The PCT are pleased we were able to offer support and to recompense the family in this case. It is important that families are not financially disadvantaged when a patient meets the eligibility criteria for NHS continuing health care.”
Click the links below to see how this story has developed in The Journal over the last week
Champion of elderly caught in 'care trap'
Care home funding is so unfair – family
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Continuing care facts
TYNESIDE Legal Services lawyer John Harrison said families were not aware what they were entitled to from the NHS Continuing Care system.
He said: “If anyone is in care primarily because of their poor state of health, their care fees should be fully funded by the NHS.”
Mr Harrison said the arrangement dated back to the setting up of the NHS.
Despite care being delegated to Social Services departments over the years, the NHS was still eligible to pay the costs.
