Care home payments: Commissioner for older people welcomes ruling

A decision to quash a Department of Health policy on paying for care costs in nursing homes has been welcomed by the NI commissioner for older people.

The commissioner, Eddie Lynch, was reacting to a decision by High Court judge Mr Justice Scoffield.

The judge ruled the department failed to properly consider the impact on elderly people who could potentially lose life savings to meet health costs.

He said it had been responsible for a "plain dereliction in its duty".

The commissioner, Mr Lynch, took a judicial review on behalf of Robin McMinnis.

The 75-year-old, who is quadriplegic and has complex medical needs, has been paying for his care while living in a Belfast nursing home.

The Continuing Healthcare Policy relates to the assessment of whether a person's needs can be met in a hospital which will not cost anything or is social-care related which could incur costs.

The judicial review highlighted that the criteria and threshold for when a person should pay for their care is unclear and operates differently between each health trust.

Eddie Lynch said the High Court ruling was a win for older people

All older people with assets worth more than £23,250 have to pay for their social care.

A change to the policy, introduced in February 2021, uses a single criteria question where people are asked: "Can your care needs be met properly in any other setting other than a hospital?"

Those people who are placed in a nursing home have to pay, while others who say they cannot go to a nursing home instead have their care paid for while in hospital.

The judge ruled that Mr McMinnis was unfairly refused the funding and ordered the Belfast Trust to reconsider his application.

He said he also proposed "to quash the decision of the department to adopt the 2021 policy".

'A matter of principle'

Mr McMinnis said it had been "a long journey for me personally over the past six years with many setbacks".

"It has been a matter of principle for me, knowing that many others have been disqualified or were unaware of the Continuing Healthcare Policy," he continued.

Reacting to the judgement, Mr Lynch said he was delighted for Mr McMinnis.

"This is also a win for the many older people who have contacted my office over the past number of years in relation to issues with continuing healthcare assessments, all of whom will now be entitled to receive the fair assessment they deserve," he said.

On Tuesday he told BBC's Good Morning Ulster the ruling shows the system "was not fit for purpose".

"The bottom line here was older people were being failed by the system," the commissioner said.

"Older people whose costs should have been picked up by the NHS were paying for their care.

"People were left high and dry, people who were entitled to this [financial] support because the system was not set up properly to give them a fair assessment."

He said this ruling "overturns and quashes a policy that was ageist".

Mr Lynch said now that the policy has been quashed, the onus is on the Department of Health to "come up with a policy that treats people fairly".

The department said it "will be considering the judgement, before deciding on next steps".