Dementia Sufferer Wins Fight For Free Care

A 94-year-old dementia sufferer has won a High Court fight to force the NHS to pay her nursing home fees.

Hilda Atkinson’s family fought a long legal battle to force the authorities to recognise that she is in need of 24-hour nursing care – which is free on the NHS – rather than “social care”, for which local authorities can levy charges.

Mrs Atkinson reached a settlement at the High Court in London, with the Plymouth Teaching Primary Care Trust agreeing to cover the costs of her care at the Consort Village nursing home.

The Trust will pay Mrs Atkinson more than £43,000 to cover the costs of her nursing care between Jan 2004 and July this year and also cover her fees from now on.

However, Mrs Atkinson’s solicitors said the case would not set a precedent because it did not affect the rules of who qualifies for nursing care.

After her husband died in 1998, Mrs Atkinson lived for a while with her daughter and son-in-law. But by August 2000 her ailments, including dementia, Parkinson’s disease, angina and osteoporosis, were too severe for them to cope with.

She moved into a succession of care homes and since then, her family has been in disagreement with the NHS over who should pay.

Since early 2005, the fees have been met by Plymouth city council, but recouped from Mrs Atkinson and her daughter.

Mrs Atkinson’s lawyers had attacked the Trust’s stance as “unlawful and wholly unreasonable”, accusing it of negligence in assessing her care needs.