Shocking tales of system that doesn’t care

MY husband had a major stroke in 2016 which left him partially paralysed, doubly incontinent and unable to swallow.

My application for Continuing Healthcare was rejected three times, during which time he had a second stroke, a heart attack and went into hospital 20 times. I spent £160,000 on his care over three years – all our savings.

I pushed for another review and finally he qualified for Continuing Healthcare funding – but he lived for only another seven months.

M Margaret McGann, Stourport

THE Continuing Healthcare process is a travesty. My 97-yearold mother has dementia, incontinence, blindness, deafness, skin lesions and soreness, and depression. She is unable to complete any task herself, yet she does not qualify for funding. She cannot pay for her nursing home, so I have to.

M Graham Wilkinson, Cheshire

MUM was catheterised, unable to feed herself, walk, dress or take her medication. She was admitted to hospital and Continuing Healthcare was never mentioned. We sold her flat for £67,000 to pay for care.

She died in 2014, and I applied retrospectively for Continuing Healthcare. Three years later my application was declined as too much time had passed.

M Anonymous

MY HUSBAND, who has Parkinson’s and a spinal cord injury, was initially sent home from hospital with NHS funding

for carers. But last Christmas we had an assessment – a 15-minute phone call from a nurse who had never seen him – and I was told he did not qualify any more. He had infections, had fallen and was housebound, but because he had not been to hospital he did not qualify. He is unable to get out of bed, wash or dry himself, eat using cutlery, dress himself, or turn in bed.

M Linda Welford, Washington, Tyne & Wear

SIX months after undergoing heart surgery and then suffering a stroke, my husband is lying in bed unable to move. On discharge, we were told he would qualify for Continuing Healthcare and the GP sent off the forms. Nothing happened and we were left with no physiotherapy, wheelchair or care. I nurse my husband 24 hours a day. Recently I was told the Continuing Healthcare request was never processed. I am exhausted and horrified.

M Julie Henty, East Sussex

MY 92-year-old father served as a Royal Marine in the Second World War and worked down the mines. Yet when he suffered a heart attack, vascular dementia, kidney failure, incontinence and blistered broken skin, he was denied Continuing Healthcare as he ‘didn’t fit the criteria’. I would travel 40 miles to his house to do his shopping, washing, prepare food, clean his room and general maintenance. I had two breakdowns and sold my home to pay for caring for Dad. He was admitted to a care home shortly before he died, for which he paid £6,000. In October 2020 he died from Covid – alone in the care home. No one said he’d deteriorated. He deserved so much more.

M Jan Parkes, address withheld

MY 13-year-old daughter has a rare neurological condition and suffers frequent, severe seizures. She needs tube feeding and care 24 hours a day.

The Clinical Commissioning Group has cut her Continuing Healthcare funding, so three nights a week she has no carer. For the other four she’ll no longer have trained nurses, but carers. My husband and I work full-time and have two other children. We cannot manage three nights a week without medical help. We fear we will be forced to put her into care.

M Amanda Black,

Milton Keynes

MY mother had arthritis, which left her unable to feed herself, wash, dress, walk or roll over in bed. But when I was no longer able to care for her (trying to hold down a full-time job and run my own house), she was told she’d have to foot the bill for her nursing home. She only had a pot of savings my father had left. Why can the Government appoint a ‘tsar’ for Covid or the menopause, but there is no ‘tsar’ for Continuing Healthcare?

M Julia Willett, Bedfordshire

WE WERE forced to wait 15 months before a Continuing Healthcare assessment was carried out for my 97-year-old father. In the meantime, he paid nearly £10,000 in care-home fees. It was finally agreed that he did qualify for funding, so we thought he’d be refunded the cash. It never happened. The home said he’d still have to contribute because nursing cost a lot more than the Government supplied. In the end, my father paid £188,000 to be looked after.

M Wendy Wigg, address withheld

MY 93-year-old mother, who died in 2012, had a long battle with Parkinson’s and had to go into a care home. At each assessment for Continuing Healthcare funding, she was found to be ineligible because of alleged capabilities she didn’t have. For instance, that she could feed herself, hold a cup and seek help. Twice we found her drooling, with her dentures slipped down her throat. She sat passively, unable to call for help.

After my mother’s death, we were awarded funding for fourand-a-half weeks of my mother’s three-year stay, which cost me more than £100,000. Cilla Hawkley, Cardiff M