Dementia families win 260k NHS care home fees refund

Three families have won back over a quarter of a million pounds they were wrongly charged for their relatives' care.

In all cases, the family home had to be sold to meet the huge costs for long-term dementia care that should have been funded by the NHS.

The families, who managed to secure backdating of their claims, are urging others battling for NHS funding to appeal to the Health Service Ombudsman and take action prior to a new deadline announced by the Department of Health.

Many people are unaware that the NHS is fully responsible for and fully funds 'continuing healthcare'.

This mainly affects very ill patients, often elderly, in nursing homes. It can also apply if a person is in hospital long-term or needs nursing care at home.

Daughne Taylor said: "The only reason my father was in a nursing home was because he was very ill and required 24 hour nursing care. I was simply told that as he had savings and a house, he had to pay for his nursing home fees. No other option was given. If we hadn't seen an article about a person who managed to claim back her mother's care fees we wouldn't have known about NHS continuing care."

She added: "I've battled the system for over four years until we finally won the claim for my dear father who was suffering with Dementia. I was determined he was eligible for funding even to the point where I was told by one social services person that to qualify you almost have to be dead. We weren't asking for anything that my father wasn't entitled to but we were made to feel like a charity case, how is this upholding elderly peoples dignity, many, many people in the same situation as we found ourselves don't know that they can claim back money they are entitled to as it is rarely publicised or even discussed by care homes themselves as they also know how difficult it can be to get it."

Families have been given a last chance to claim after the announcement from the Department of Health means a close down of claims for wrongly paid care home fees for the period 1 April 2004 to 31 March 2011 in England.

Any new claim needs to be registered before the 30 September 2012.

A landmark 1999 ruling established that the NHS was responsible for funding care in a home where the primary reason for that care was a health need.

However, exactly what constitutes such a need has proved controversial and hard to judge.

So far, over £20m has been recovered by Hugh James solicitors representing a further 2,000 families who claim they have been wrongly charged for care home fees.

Lisa Morgan, partner with the specialist nursing care team at Hugh James, claims thousands of people across England have been wrongly charged for care and in many cases, they have been forced to sell their family home to pay.

Ms Morgan said: “It is important that people are aware of this new deadline. This is their last chance to ask the Primary Care Trust for a review of care home fees paid from 1 April 2004 to 31 March 2012.

“Nursing home fees can escalate often leading to individuals having to sell their home to pay for care. Individuals or their families may be entitled to thousands of pounds in reimbursement and these families prove that victory is possible, even though obstacles were put in their way at every turn.”