Welsh care assessments causing claims mayhem

This time it relates to multi-million pound errors in calculations used by health authorities in determining whether or not individual old people are eligible for continuing healthcare funding by the NHS. A recent investigation by local BBC reporters has revealed that many residents living in care homes in Wales had been forced to sell their homes to pay for their care when this should, in fact, have been provided by the NHS.

Much of the blame apparently lies with amendments to the Welsh government's assessment guidelines in 2010 which have made it harder for some patients in Wales to get funding while in England the same types of forms remained unchanged.
This whole fiasco threatens to unleash a whole new raft of compensation claims by the sort of “ No foal, no fee “ lawyers who have thrived on such things as Payment Protection Insurance. Already, Welsh health boards have been obliged to refund £3.6 million to patients who were originally told that they weren’t entitled to Continuing Healthcare Funding by the NHS. Currently there is a backlog of some 2,000 cases which are to be considered and there is little doubt that many of these will result in refunds.
In the wake of this multi- million pound legal onslaught, it is hardly surprising that the Welsh government has asked the Wales Audit Office to review the method of free care assessment and it is hoped that its findings will be available early in 2013.
It would appear at first blush as though the main problem is the “ Tick Box “ system the nurses have to use when assessing patients. If, for instance, they have to give a “ Yes “ or “ No “ answer to a particular question, there may well be a grey area in between which might require a measure of discretion. Unfortunately, there is little or no scope for such discretion in the current assessment process.
The Conservative opposition health spokesman, Darren Millar, is clearly concerned about how much this is going to cost with the expense of refunds being compounded by the cost of the legal proceedings involved. He has called for a much shorter, more streamlined appeals process to minimise the huge expense of solicitors’ fees etc. The cost of these legal fees would be much better spent on care for those who clearly deserve it, he argues.