The union which fought for the right of miners to compensation for industrial
injuries are preparing to go to the courts again - this time to fight
for the right to free care in nursing homes.
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Wales' current affairs programme Taro Naw (Tuesday
30 March, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Wales on S4C) reveals that this could cost the Government
millions of pounds.
The National Association of Colliery Overmen, Deputies and Shotfirers
(NACODS) South Wales claims that thousands of people in Wales are being
wrongly charged for places in nursing homes which should be provided
free as 'continuing care' by the NHS.
The court of appeal has stated that the NHS must pay when a person's
primary need is a health need, but critics have claimed that a patient
needs to be 'on the verge of death' before the NHS is willing to pay
in Wales.
Bleddyn Hancock of NACODS said: "This is a case where people have
been swindled out of their savings, hounded out of their homes and conned
out of the free care they deserve.
"The Government should urgently look to reimburse those people
they have wrongly charged."
The union and Hugh James Solicitors of Cardiff are preparing legal
proceedings to challenge the decision by Merthyr Tydfil Local Health
Board not to pay for the nursing care of one of their members.
The NACODS member, from Aberfan, is currently in hospital and has been
told that he must move to a nursing home, but the NHS won't pay.
Because he has over Β£20,000 in assets social services won't pay for
his care either, so the member will have to pay for most of the care
himself.
The union's president Bleddyn Hancock believes that they, "are
on the verge of mass legal action in Wales on this issue".
He claims that the action could have the same impact as the miners'
compensation case - which resulted in the largest industrial injury
payout in history.
Aled Griffiths, an expert on the Law and the Elderly from the University
of Wales, Bangor, believes that the NHS is failing elderly people in
nursing homes.
"They are very, very reluctant to accept their responsibility
and that's a tragedy in my opinion."
The programme interviews Margaret Francis from Pontypridd who feels
that the NHS failed her mother and intends to appeal against the NHS'
decision to refuse to fund her mother's care.
Mari Mathias, who died two years ago, was blind and suffering from
Alzheimer's disease and the family had to sell her mother's home to
pay for her 18-month stay in a specialist nursing home.
The family were never informed that her mother might be eligible for
free continuing care under the NHS.
"My mother and father belonged to a generation where saving was
very important, and of course leaving some money as an inheritance to
the children," said Margaret Francis.
"There was hardly anything left - there wasn't any money left
for her funeral, because all the money had been spent on keeping her
in the home."
She is encouraged by the case of Emlyn Parry from Felinheli, who also
suffers from Alzheimer's disease and was placed in a nursing home where
he had to pay for his own care.
His son Geraint Parry believed his father needed continuing care and
that Gwynedd Local Health Board should therefore pay for his father's
treatment.
He applied in March 2003 for NHS funding and after months of attempting
to contact the Local Health Board, they finally decided, in September,
that Emlyn Parry was not eligible for NHS funding.
Geraint Parry said that he intended to appeal and considered a complaint
to the NHS ombudsman.
In November 2003, the board apologised to the family and decided to
fund Emlyn Parry's care as well as refunding the nursing home fees he
had already paid.
Geraint Parry says that having to fight for what his father was entitled
to placed a great strain on the family.
"My father worked hard all his life, and served in the army,"
said Mr. Parry. "If I hadn't complained and gone after the issue,
perhaps I still wouldn't have heard what their decision was.
"There is so much complexity involved with the issue, it's no
wonder that so many people give up."
Taro Naw, Tuesday 30 March, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Wales on S4C, 8.25pm
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