Assembly Members call on the Welsh Assembly Government to get to grips with the backlog of retrospective claims
27 I 09 I 10
The Welsh Liberal Democrats and Welsh
Conservative Members have called on the Welsh Assembly Government
to get to grips with continuing care payments in a more efficient
way in order to get through the backlog of nearly 2500
retrospective claims.
Speaking in the Assembly, Mr. Peter Black AM called
on the health minister to cut through the red tape so as to allow
straightforward cases to proceed to resolution, whilst providing
more resources to decide complex applications more quickly. He used
the example of a Hugh James case, Mrs Constance Williams from Abbey
in Neath to illustrate his case.
At present the Welsh Assembly Government is
processing 140 cases a year out of the 2,485 claims at which rate
it will take 13 years to deal with all the cases. The dispute is
whether the care received by patients is health care in which case
the state pays or personal care, in which case the patient's family
must pay often by selling their relative's home. The Health
Minister has given only 3 years to review all the cases, meanwhile
interest is accruing every day.
Veronica German AM, Shadow Minister for Health
and Wellbeing said:
“This is a disastrous situation for
patients and their families who have been waiting years to receive
payments for something they should never have paid for in the first
place. Now we have been told that it could take thirteen years or
more.
“It is clear that something has to change.
The Labour-Plaid government has to adapt to the reality of these
claims that will run into the tens of millions of pounds.
“It is completely unacceptable for the
Labour-Plaid government to bury their heads in the sand and just
hope that it will go away. They have to act now, and address the
incredibly inefficient way that these cases have been handled so
far.
“It is essential that they install new
systems to make the whole process more efficient. Only though
swift, resourceful action can they start clearing this back log and
families can receive the payments which in many cases have left
them financially crippled”
In January 2010, information obtained by
Shadow Health Minister Andrew RT Davies revealed that 800 claims
had been settled and £2.6 million had been paid in interest. He
called for the Assembly to address the problem. Andrew RT Davies AM
said:
“I am looking for the promise that a route
map will be brought forward that will identity how the Government
will crystallize these claims, how it will ensure the Welsh
taxpayer from future interest payments on unsettled claims, and how
these claims will be dealt with in the most logical way, and not
the most bureaucratic.”
Lisa Morgan, Solicitor with the Specialist
Nursing Care Team at Hugh James who has met with Assembly Members
said: “There is a huge problem in Wales. There are thousands of
retrospective cases that need to be considered. The Assembly gave
three years to review all cases at the beginning of the year;
however we understand that the timeframe has not started yet. It is
in the Assembly and the families interests that these cases are
dealt quickly.”
Key Facts:
- If you are eligible for NHS Continuing
Healthcare, you do not make any contribution towards the long term
care fees. The NHS pays the whole cost and it applies if a person
is in hospital, care home or in their own home.
- If a person is not assessed as eligible for
NHS Continuing Health care and has capital over £22,000 in Wales,
they have to pay for all the care fees.
- The average weekly cost for care, per person,
is £600. As an example, if 500 people have been incorrectly
paying for care for one year, then they are owed approximately £15m
in total.
- Hugh James currently represents over 2000
people claiming they have been wrongly charged nursing care fees in
England and Wales and have recovered over £10 million in wrongly
paid nursing home fees to date.