NHS pays back £180m to patients
Updated on 12 February 2008
The NHS is being forced to pay out at least £180 million to people wrongly charged for nursing care.
Patients charged for long-term nursing and social care from 1996 to 2004 have been able to have their cases reviewed.
More than 12,000 cases have been examined, resulting in around 2,000 payouts at a total cost of £180m to date.
It comes after NHS chiefs were told to fund care packages where the main area of need was health-related rather than just personal care, such as aid with bathing or dressing.
But the rules were interpreted differently across England, meaning some people ended up paying more than they should.
In 2003, a report by the Health Service Ombudsman said the Government's guidance on the eligibility of patients for NHS-funded care places had been "misinterpreted and misapplied" by some health authorities.
The result was that some elderly and disabled patients suffered "hardship and injustice" by wrongly being asked to pay for their care needs.
Earlier, in 1999, Pam Coughlan won a test case against the closure of her NHS care home in Exeter.
The judgment made clear that if the needs of the patient were primarily health needs, the health authority was responsible. Applications had to be submitted to primary care trusts by November last year for the payouts, which can take distress into account.
A Department of Health spokesman said: "The NHS has paid restitution to the affected individuals or their families, totalling £180m to date. It is not possible to estimate the level of restitution that will be paid following the review of the remaining cases."
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