Ombudsman slams DoH over care fees bungle

15 Mar 07
The Parliamentary and health service Ombudsman has found the Department of Health guilty of 'maladministration' in its bungled attempts to correct an earlier error.

16 March 2007

The Parliamentary and health service Ombudsman has found the Department of Health guilty of 'maladministration' in its bungled attempts to correct an earlier error.

The mistake relates to DoH guidance to local NHS bodies for recompensing the 2,000 people wrongly charged for their NHS 'continuing care' between 1996 and 2004.

Rather than follow Treasury guidance and 'restore individuals to the position they would have been in', the DoH advised the NHS to return the funds the individual had been charged, plus inflation.

Ombudsman Ann Abraham's March 13 report Retrospective continuing care funding and redress found that the DoH's approach 'focused on remedying the impact on the NHS… It did not focus on the impact on the individuals who had been denied funding, that is, the injustice they had experienced.'

That meant people were not compensated for the effect on their financial circumstances and wellbeing of having to spend savings or liquidate assets.

Abrahams further criticised the DoH's guidance that the retail price index should be used to calculate interest on repayments, rather than the much higher county court judgment debt rate, which is currently 8%.

When the finance director of one strategic health authority wrote to the DoH asking if a higher rate would be more appropriate, a senior official responded: 'Don't draw attention to it and say the department has issued guidance on interest… Recompense is of the funds not properly provided, not of what an individual might have paid.'

Social care minister Ivan Lewis said: 'We accept the ombudsman's concerns and recommendations and will be issuing new guidance to the NHS shortly.'

PFmar2007

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