Figures have emerged showing that 7,500 claims have been received by health boards from people who feel that they have been wrongly charged for continuing healthcare.
The claims relate to care received in Wales from 1996 onwards, and, to date, 70% have been completed, with over £70m paid out.
Janet Finch-Saunders AM, Welsh Conservatives’ Older People’s Champion, said:
“The figure of £70m is astronomical, and these pay-outs will have had an impact on the financial planning ability of health boards.
“The main concern here is the number of patients and families who have incorrectly had to pay for their continuing healthcare, who may have been suffering out-of-pocket unnecessarily.
“I urge the Welsh Government to ensure that the outstanding 30% of these claims are settled as soon as possible.”
Notes:
FOR ANSWER BY THE CABINET SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, WELL-BEING AND SPORT ON 11 OCTOBER 2017
Janet Finch-Saunders (Aberconwy): How many people have successfully made a claim for backdated funding under Continuing NHS Healthcare, and what is the total value of these claims? (WAQ74329)
- Evans: Approximately 7,500 claims have been received by health boards in Wales with over 70% of these having been completed. These claims relate to the period between 1996 and the present. Whilst Health Boards have not historically collected data on the number of successful claims we do know that just over £70million has been repaid to people that were wrongly charged for their care.
With each successive claim period there are fewer in the system. However, we must continue to focus on getting it right first time in order to ensure that people are aware of their right to be assessed for CHC and those assessments are undertaken correctly and in a consistent way.
According to the Welsh Government website, a person can currently submit a claim if they or someone they care for may have been eligible for Continuing NHS Healthcare but paid for all, or part, of their care.
Local Health Boards are now considering claims for care given between 31 October 2015 and 31 October 2016. The deadline for registering such claims is 31 October 2017.
Following this, the system will change: Claims may still be submitted, but the claim period can be no longer than 12 months from the date of the application.