Oswestry lawyer warns rush is on for retrospective healthcare claims
A county lawyer has issued a warning to people intending to register a claim for retrospective payment of self-funded continuing healthcare costs that should have been paid for by the NHS.
Vicky Wilson, a Senior Solicitor in the Oswestry office of leading Shropshire and North Wales law firm GHP Legal, warns that due to deadlines imposed by the NHS back in March people should now get their claims in as soon as possible.
“If a person’s predominant need is for nursing care the NHS is obliged to provide it free of charge,” she says, “irrespective of whether the care is provided at home, in a private nursing home or in a hospital.
“Unfortunately the NHS does not always make this clear. Nor have they widely publicised the deadlines for retrospective payment claims.
“A further problem is that the eligibility criteria are high and care funding is an extremely complex process which the average person may find extreme difficulty to deal with unless they have expert guidance.
“Potential entitlement to reimbursement applies not only in respect of people who contributed to their own nursing care from April 2004 onwards, but also in respect of people who contributed from that date and have since died.”
Claims for people who paid for their care between April 1st 2004 and March 31st 2011 must be registered with the NHS by September 30th 2012. Claims for care between April 1st 2011 and March 31st 2012 must be registered by March 31st 2013.
