By Rosalind Hughes, co-founder of Just Caring Legal
This week Fiona Phillips, broadcaster, columnist and Alzheimer’s ambassador, has been tweeting her support for the Judicial Review for NHS Continuing Healthcare. The group is bringing legal proceedings against the government and NHS for creating the NHS Continuing Healthcare scandal. This has seen many thousands of the most vulnerable in our society pay for NHS care that should be free.
Having supported not one but two parents with dementia through their final illnesses, Fiona knows exactly what she’s talking about when it comes to fighting for fair care. She tweeted: “Sadly [NHS Continuing Healthcare is] a national scandal that’s been allowed to become part of the furniture. And it IS a scandal. Fleecing the frail and elderly & their families for care, which should be a basic human right. How can a civilised society watch people flog their homes for the basics?” Typically plain spoken, and absolutely on the money.
The NHS could be liable for £5 billion in NHS Continuing Healthcare back payments
Fiona is so right. The NHS Continuing Healthcare scandal HAS been allowed to become part of the furniture. So much so that the crowdfunded Judicial Review believes it is a “reasonable assumption” that the NHS could be liable for £5 billion in NHS Continuing Healthcare back payments. That is £5 billion that rightly belongs to some of the most vulnerable people in our society. Most of them have paid into the NHS all their lives. And the NHS denied them care at the time they needed it most.
These are people who require a high level of support due to a primary health need. It may be dementia, MS, Parkinsons or the effects of stroke rendering them in need of care. That care, as with all NHS care, should be free at the point of use. Unlike local authority funding, those eligible are entitled to it regardless of means or ability to pay. And yet in so many cases the NHS fails to accurately assess or adequately meet their needs.
Unjust and delayed decisions about NHS CHC continue to have a devastating impact on people’s lives
Multiple independent and expert bodies, the media and the public have been pointing out the deficiencies of the NHS Continuing Healthcare system for years. Yet still, unjust and delayed decisions on funding continue to have a devastating impact on people’s lives. It leaves many without essential care. Others are forced to pay out thousands of pounds for self-funded care while they wait for decisions. The system can take years to navigate successfully.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman is the last port of call for those struggling to access NHS Continuing Healthcare funding. In a report published earlier this month, the Ombudsman Rob Behrens said he continued to receive complaints highlighting “repeated failings in the way local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) assessed people’s care needs and funded their care packages.
“Some complainants had made huge financial sacrifices to pay for a family member’s care. Others spent years without the care they needed because their local CCG assessed their needs incorrectly. Many have experienced stress, anxiety and ill-health as a result.
“Our casework demonstrates that failing to provide vulnerable people with the care they are entitled to causes huge suffering, as well as financial harm, for them and their families.”
Remember, this is coming from the very body set up to scrutinise NHS Continuing Healthcare decisions. What more proof do we need that the system is not fit for purpose? That the remedies for injustice are inadequate? That vulnerable people are being “fleeced” in plain sight?
Here at Just Caring Legal, we have never let this scandal become part of the furniture
We are proud to say that in the five years since we founded Just Caring Legal, specifically to help families battle for NHS Continuing Healthcare, we have not given this scandal a single day off. With our specialist expertise, we have recovered hundreds of thousands of pounds in refunds for vulnerable care residents and their families. We have given straightforward and effective advice on how to navigate this most bureaucratic and intimidating of systems. And we have argued family’s cases in NHS Continuing Healthcare eligibility and appeal hearings up and down the country. And we can do all this for you too.
So if you are one of the many families feeling that your emotional and financial suffering is being ignored, call us today. Your story has been part of the furniture for long enough. It is time to be heard.