Can I Reclaim Nursing Fees From The NHS?

In the UK some 45,000 homes are sold in order to pay for nursing home fees, which on average cost around £30,000 a year. The numbers of those receiving long term care in England and Wales is in excess of 200,000, many of whom are receiving nursing care. If you have a parent, relative, or are receiving nursing care yourself, did you know that the NHS could be paying your fees instead of yourself?  Even if you've applied for NHS funding and been turned down, you could still have your case re-assessed and if funding is approved, you could also reclaim nursing fees which have already been paid out.

When assessing an individual's needs for social, health or nursing care, the local authorities have a tendency to err on the side of caution as their responsibility is also in part to keep NHS costs down. This means that those which are considered to be borderline cases for a continuing care funding claim are more likely to be turned down rather than accepted. This can have costly and sometimes disastrous consequences for some people and their families, as funding ones own healthcare often means having to sell ones home.

In 1999, Pam Coughlan took her local health authority to court after having been refused funding for her own nursing home fees. Mrs. Coughlan won her case in the Appeal Court and successfully reclaimed her nursing fees. New guidelines were put in to place as a result of this landmark ruling, however the funding criteria still varied considerable throughout the various local health authorities and it soon became apparent that these new guidelines, although laid out with the best of intentions, were still majorly flawed. Today however, local health authorities are all bound be the same guidelines with regards to healthcare funding, but this does not mean that some borderline cases are still being refused their continuing care funding claim.

If you feel that you or a family member has been wrongly assessed, then you may still be able to reclaim nursing fees by having your claim reassessed. Current legislation states that one can only reclaim nursing fees after 2004, and if you're claiming on behalf of a family member, then even if the person or persons in question have passed away, you may be able to make a claim for and monies spent on healthcare funding after 2004. There are thousands of people across the UK who may have been wrongly assessed in their healthcare or continuing care funding claim, so don't just take their word for it. Further details are available from the Age UK website (www.ageuk.org.uk) and some claims companies will also help you decipher the paperwork and help you make a successful healthcare claim.