Exclusive: Taxpayer faces huge bill over care fees red tape

MILLIONS of pounds of taxpayers’ cash could be wasted due to NHS delays in assessing claims for wrongly-paid care fees which have left thousands of families in Yorkshire locked in a “bureaucratic nightmare”, it is claimed today.
Jacqueline Atkin faced long delays for her claim  for backdated NHS care home fees for her late parentsJacqueline Atkin faced long delays for her claim  for backdated NHS care home fees for her late parents
Jacqueline Atkin faced long delays for her claim for backdated NHS care home fees for her late parents

Estimates by the Yorkshire Post suggest nearly £90m has been set aside by the region’s NHS to cover the costs of nursing home bills funded in error by families for sick relatives instead of being picked up by the health service.

Now NHS officials are being accused of delays in assessing claims which will further add to pay-outs already totalling £45,000 on average due to annual interest payments of up to eight per cent charged on each bill.

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Documents seen by the Yorkshire Post reveal NHS staff in South Yorkshire are struggling to deal with the huge number of cases and predict claims will take another two years to settle.

Some of the delays have been blamed on the switch in April from primary care trusts (PCTs) to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) as officials sift through information which had already been assessed prior to the Government’s controversial NHS re-organisation.

NHS continuing healthcare is free where sick people primarily have long-term health needs and includes the payment of care home fees. But past failures to carry out effective assessments prompted a retrospective review of cases as far back as 2004.

As many as 60,000 claims have been received nationwide, among them more than 5,000 from across the region.

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Officials in the cash-stricken NHS in North Yorkshire have received more than 900 applications but admit they have yet to decide how to deal with them.

In Doncaster, £12m has been set aside for claims, with a further £7m put by in each of Sheffield and Barnsley, and £6m in Wakefield.

Jacqueline Atkin, of Rotherham, is awaiting assessment of her claim for a £66,000 refund for the care of her late father and mother who needed intensive nursing between 2008 and 2011 after they developed dementia.

But she said she was growing increasingly frustrated at delays in the case handled by the NHS South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Retrospective Close Down Project.

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She said: “My parents were in care for about one and a half years as their needs were so demanding. They were told that, as they had savings and a house, they would have to pay for their own nursing home fees.

“They were forced to sell our family home, which they’d originally wanted to bequeath to us, to cover the costs. All their savings were eaten by care home costs.

“The process is now so long and complex it’s like it’s been designed to deter people from trying to secure refunds.”

Her solicitor Hannah McLuckie, of Manchester-based law firm Farley Dwek, described the close down project as a “bureaucratic nightmare”.

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She said claims submitted up to two years ago had been assessed by staff at PCTs and then re-assessed by staff at CCGs. Meanwhile taxpayers were facing a larger bill from the delays due to mounting costs of interest.

“I’ve got no doubt that Mrs Atkin’s case is the tip of the iceberg,” she said. “It’s unfair that hard-working families should have to pay for the mistakes made by the NHS and the PCTs.

“The longer it takes to deal with payments, the higher the interest rate payments will be.”

Debbie Morton, integrated care service lead for NHS West and South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Commissioning Support Unit, said the reviews were being managed under Department of Health guidelines.

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“The process is complicated, but is built on a strong foundation of partnership working between the claimant and their care providers to ensure each year of claim is assessed against criteria established under the national framework,” she said.

“We are aware that in a small number of cases concerns have been raised as to the length of time the process will take but we would like to reassure all clients that our process is in line with Department of Health expectations.”

NHS officials in North Yorkshire said specialist staff were “currently considering options as to how they will clinically manage this process”.