As some of you will know, my OH was very ill during the year before he died in February last year. And I posted about applying for Continuing Health Care funding for his care, which was complex and very difficult. CHC funding means that the Health Authority take responsibility for paying for his care.
He underwent 2 assessments, both of which were very traumatic to me, as the assessors were not pleasant, and, I could see, determined that he did not qualify.
I launched an appeal, as my past professional history meant that I knew for sure the decisions were wrong. Yesterday the appeal was heard via Teams and they have agreed that he did qualify and will be refunding me the money that I had to spend on his care. It was the whole of his savings.
As I had not budgeted for this money, I plan to share it between our DDs - I know this is what he would have wanted.
A part of me feels that I do not need it and it should be spent on treatment for other patients, but I also feel that I was put through months of misery and anxiety - looking after a very sick man and fighting for the proper help; not knowing how I was going to pay for it and having to look at remortgaging etc. etc. It was a truly dreadful time and need not have been. If the right decision had been made to start with I could have concentrated on caring for him rather than being beset by huge financial worries and concern that I might not be able to finance his care.
It is an iniquitous system - the majority of people in nursing homes qualify for it but do not get it. This is partly through ignorance of the system (or even awareness that this funding exists) and partly because it is improperly administered.
I had an assessor virtually tell me I was lying during this process.....I really did not need that!
Hopefully I can put the whole miserable process to bed now.
Passports not in the drawer I always keep them in. Turning the place upside down.