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Brother faces long wait in battle to make trust foot bill

From the archive, first published Wednesday 19th Jul 2006.

A MAN who is fighting to force a health authority to pay for his sick brother's care is facing a further delay in his case being reviewed.

Stephen Johnson, of Strawberry Lane, Acton Bridge, says Central Cheshire Primary Care Trust is acting unlawfully in expecting his brother Rod to pay for his care.

Rod, 53, had a massive stroke on May 24 last year.

He was treated in Warrington Hospital and then transferred to Northwich on September 7 before moving to Redwalls Nursing Home, Sandiway, on March 10 where he is being looked after.

Rod is paying for this himself because the authority refuses to foot the bill.

Under the current system the NHS will meet all costs of long-term care if it is deemed to be for medical reasons.

Stephen said: "If it is considered social care the costs are means tested with the patient expected to pay some or all of their costs."

He wrote to the PCT and has now heard his brother's case has been moved from 18th to 15th on a list of cases to be reviewed.

But the PCT said there would be a delay because of a new national framework for NHS continuing healthcare and NHS funded nursing care in England.

The consultation about this document ends in September and once it has been approved, the list of cases will be reviewed.

Stephen said: "I can't see his case being reviewed in anything less than a year.

"In this national framework all they are doing is giving the PCTs the same criteria to follow - I can't see anything new in this.

"According to them, my brother is stable. He is on 26 different types of medication and six of these have been since he went to the care home."

A Central Cheshire PCT spokesman said: "The Government launched a public consultation on a National Framework for NHS continuing healthcare and NHS funded nursing care in England, on June 19, 2006.

"The Government wants to 'establish a simpler, fairer and more coherent system of assessment to determine eligibility criteria for NHS funding of long term care outside hospitals'."

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