Care Home Solutions

Site Design by Image Architect

Care Home Solutions UK is part of the I.S.Group which includes

Inventory Solutions UK Claims Management Solutions Probate Solutions

Regulated by the Ministry of Justice CRM Number 12537

Data protection number

Z 1253353

Family forced to sell home to pay care home fees awarded £100,000

A family who were forced to sell their father's home to pay for his care home fees have been awarded £100,000 in compensation.

By Lucy Cockcroft
Last Updated: 8:05PM BST 18 Sep 2008

Harry Denham died in 2007 after spending more than five years in a nursing home, where he received specialist care for Alzheimer's disease. To cover the costs of his fees, which were up to £740 a week, Mr Denham's children were advised that they had no choice but to sell his house in Newport, Gwent. But now they have been told the NHS should have picked up the bill.

Their case has now been heard by an NHS review panel, which awarded the family £100,000 to help cover their losses. Mr Denham's daughter, Jane Czyrko, said: "He'd never been unemployed, or had benefits, he and mum saved all their lives. It didn't seem fair.

"They'd had money in the bank and the house - but we were told the next thing to do was sell the house and the proceeds would fund his care. "So, we sold their house to fund his care. "We were told there wouldn't be enough to cover the fees and we'd have to pay £40 a week top-up. "I thought: 'They'd had dad's money, now they want ours'." The family paid his fees at the nursing home in Chepstow, Monmouthshire, to make his last days as happy as they could.

But it was only after he died, aged 80, that his family found out the fees should have been paid by the NHS under Continuing Healthcare rules. Mrs Czyrko, also from Newport, Gwent, began work for the Alzheimer's Disease Society and found out about the NHS funded continuing healthcare scheme. An application was submitted to the Newport Local Health Board and a review panel ruled in the family's favour. Now Mrs Czyrko that fears many more families will find themselves in her situation. She said: "We were just never asked and were not aware of it as an option." The family's solicitor, Hugh James, said: "We have recovered more than £3.5 million in nursing home fees that need not have been paid."