Forced Home Sales to Pay for Medical Care
The present Government criticised the Conservatives for forcing 40,000 pensioners a year to sell their homes. Tony Blair said he did not want children "brought up in a country where the only way pensioners can get long term care is by selling their home."
But the BBC programme, Panorama, has uncovered a scandal of thousands of families in England and Wales being forced to sell their family home to pay for the long-term medical care in a nursing home, of a sick relative - care that should, legally, have been paid for by the NHS.
The picture that emerges is of relatives, already distressed by the severe illness of someone close to them, not being properly informed about their rights by the NHS.
In the courts, a test case has determined when the NHS should pay for care, but in practice, the programme reveals, this judgement is being widely disregarded. A lawyer involved in that case tells Panorama, "It's dishonest and it's quite astonishing that it's gone on for so long." The programme reports that the NHS, in many cases, is behaving unlawfully, and homes are being sold that should not be.
A Liverpool man, a former painter and decorator, paralysed, and paying £27,000 a year for his own care in a residential home, having never even been advised that the possibility of free care existed, says simply,"I think it's unjust."
Commenting on the situation now, David Hinchliffe the former Chair of the Commons Select Committee on Health says, "It's scandalous... it leaves you with a very bitter taste."
The programme is scheduled for Sunday 5 March at 22:15
Source: BBC News
