Carers urged to seek NHS funding

Pauline Hardinges says care charges are 'like back door privatisation'

A woman from south east Cornwall has defied a legal confidentiality clause to urge carers to check what funding they are entitled to.

Pauline Hardinges was refunded £30,000 from the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust (PCT) for costs incurred through her mother's care.

Dorothy Madeley, who had Alzheimer's disease, had to be placed in a private care home.

Several years later Mrs Hardinges found that she was entitled to NHS money.

Her mother, Dorothy Madeley, was diagnosed in 2000. The PCT assessed her care needs and found that she was entitled to "social", but not "medical" care.

Pauline Hardinges later paid for her mother to go into a private care home when her condition deteriorated.

We no longer use this clause when providing retrospective payments Antek Lejk, Cornwall PCT

In 2007 she discovered that a retrospective review of care needs could be carried out and when that was done it found that her mother should have been given continuing care by the NHS.

Mrs Hardinges said it took a year for the Cornwall PCT to acknowledge that she was entitled to a refund on the cost of her mother's care.

When the health service gave back the £30,000 it asked Mrs Hardinges to sign a confidentiality order preventing her from speaking publically about the situation.

She defied the order to encourage others to check whether they are also entitled to repayments.

Antek Lejk from NHS Cornwall said:"We no longer use this clause when providing retrospective payments for continuing care.

"It was, and remains, perfectly legal... but we do not feel it reflects our commitment to openness."

Mrs Hardinges, who lives near Looe, said: "People like my mother deserve better treatment... It's like back door privatisation with vulnerable people who haven't got a voice."