Heswall family win legal battle for £165k in care fees

Aug 19 2009 by Liza Williams, Birkenhead News

A WIRRAL family has won a six-year legal battle after their elderly relative wrongly paid £165,000 in care home fees.

Marjorie Eyton-Jones suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and paid the cash to two care homes between 1998 and 2005 – Brimstage Manor and Manor House Nursing Home, both in Wirral.

A North West Strategic Health Authority panel has now ruled against three health Trusts, including Wirral PCT, and the family have recovered the money.

Because Mrs Eyton-Jones’s illness was so severe, solicitors for the family argued the NHS should have funded her care – costing £1,900 a month – under Continuing Healthcare Guidelines.

But relatives were told at the time by health Trusts that she would have to pay, because it fell into the remit of social care and they were forced to sell her home.

Mrs Eyton-Jones’s son, Gordon Line, from Heswall, said last week: “It has been a hard and long six-year fight, but I am happy the NHS have finally admitted they should have been responsible for my mum’s nursing home fees and will reimburse all the money.

“The only reason my mother was in a nursing home is because she required 24-hour nursing care.

“I was simply told that, as she had capital, she had to pay for her nursing home fees. No other option was given.

“When I became aware of NHS Continuing Healthcare, I immediately asked that my mother be assessed.

“I felt it was clear that my mother should have had her fees paid by the NHS.

“The current system we have is complex and unfair.

“It is a labyrinth and anyone trying to navigate through it needs assistance.”

The 88-year-old grandmother and former secretary to the commissioner of police in Hong Kong, suffered from dementia.

She was admitted to Ysbyty Gwynedd, in Bangor, North Wales, in July, 1998, after breaking her leg in a fall.

The family were told that she could not go home because she needed 24-hour nursing care.

She was admitted to the Manor House Nursing Home, in Upton, Wirral, in August, 1998, to be near her family.

A spokesman for NHS Wirral said: “NHS Wirral has accepted the decision of the panel and will be reimbursing the nursing homes costs of the late Mrs Eyton-Jones.”