A desperate family who were forced to appeal a decision over support for nursing home fees has finally won its battle and recovered £90,000.
Alan Royle, 87, was suffering from severe Parkinson’s disease and dementia before he passed away in 2021. With his nursing home fees reaching around £5,000 a week, the family applied for NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) to help with costs but were initially denied the support.
NHS CHC is a fully-funded package of care that some people are entitled to receive as a result of disability, accident or illness.
It is available in England and Wales to individuals who have complex, intense or unpredictable needs and can be provided in a nursing home, in a hospital or in a person’s own home. Those who are accepted receive fully-funded care from the NHS.
However, the scheme is notoriously difficult to gain approval for, due to its strict guidelines.
Mr Royle’s son, Ian Royle, 58 from Cheshire, told Express.co.uk: “At the time we did the process and got turned down for it, it was very disappointing and I was pretty furious about it.
“Dad had Parkinson’s and dementia and it was quite severe. He couldn’t do anything for himself at all. He was totally reliant on people in the nursing home to do everything for him.
“He couldn’t feed himself, shower, anything like that. He could barely communicate either. He couldn’t talk to us anymore.”
People who need this level of support are typically admitted to nursing homes, which have qualified nurses on-site to provide medical care. These homes are also significantly more expensive than care homes – although these are also rapidly increasing in price.
With Mr Royle’s nursing home costs hitting £5,000 a week and no sign of NHS CHC support, he was forced to sell the family home to afford the fees.
But after appealing the decision, the family have since been able to recover around £90,000 in fees.
Mr Royle said: “Eventually, we got there. It was a battle. He should have been granted CHC right from the very start when he moved into the nursing home, which was in 2016 or 2017.
“It’s a very difficult process and in theory, you can do it yourself, but it helps, as we found, to have a lawyer on board because they know the processes. Obviously, although you have to pay for it, if you’re successful, it’s well worth it.”
Lisa Morgan’s team at Hugh James managed to recover £90,000 for the family. Ms Morgan, a partner in the Nursing Care Fee Recovery team said: “With an ageing population and the increase in care cost, future care is a real concern for thousands of people.
“Recent stats by healthcare analysts LaingBuisson show a sharp rise in care across the UK. The cost of care has increased by almost 10 percent in the past year, with some care homes reaching £10,000 per month. As a result, many people in care are running out of funds and having to sell their homes to afford the cost.”
However, she continued: “What many are unaware of is the availability of full financial support. The NHS must pay 100 percent of a person’s care fees for those whose needs fall under ‘health’, as opposed to ‘social’.
“This fully-funded care package is known as Continuing Healthcare (CHC), which is provided irrespective of an individual’s wealth.
“NHS CHC is a vital source of funding for many families across the UK who require long-term care from the NHS. Sadly, despite an ageing population, NHS England figures show the number of people eligible for funding has dropped by 20 percent since 2015.
“A lack of awareness of the funding scheme coupled with guidelines often forgotten or applied too restrictively, means a significant number of people who should be eligible are being turned down by the NHS.”
More information about NHS CHC can be found here.
