Week In Week Out
Published on 20 June 2012 10:30 AM
Age Cymru has welcomed last night's BBC Wales programme ‘Week In Week Out'.
The documentary featured the story of Helen Jones and her 83-year-old mother - the late Cynthia Molkner.
Ms Molkner had dementia, was bedridden, doubly incontinent and could not communicate or feed herself.
Despite this, her local health board twice ruled that she was not ill enough to receive NHS Continuing Care.
But Helen Jones persisted and finally secured free care for her mother, only for Ms Molkner to die a few hours after the LHB reversed its decision.
Helen Jones had sold personal belongings to pay for care for her mother and the programme revealed that health boards across Wales have repaid £3.6 million to patients who were wrongly charged for NHS Continuing Care.
Commenting on the programme, Amy Clifton - Age Cymru's Policy Advisor says:
"Age Cymru commends Helen Jones and BBC Wales for putting this issue in the public eye and raising awareness of the issues caused by the current NHS Continuing Care system.
"The fact that local health boards across Wales have had to repay £3.6 million to patients, some of whom will have been made to sell their homes to pay for care which should have been free, clearly demonstrates that the system is not working.
"The current NHS Continuing Care system is overly complicated and open to misinterpretation.
"Age Cymru believes that reform of the whole paying for care system is urgently required.
"We welcome the review of care assessments being undertaken by the Wales Audit office and we look forward to reading the report when it is published in 2013."