A watchdog has ordered Buckinghamshire Council to issue a five-figure payout to a family following the handling of an elderly’s financial records.

The report found that the woman, who is known as Mrs Y, was the victim of ‘poor practice’ and ‘maladministration’ after she was taken from a hospital to a care home in December 2021 under the ‘discharge to assess’ pathway scheme.

This allows people to leave the hospital into a residential/nursing home to continue receiving support and allow further assessment of their longer-term care needs.

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The care is free of charge for six weeks.

However, Mrs X, the daughter of Mrs Y, received a phone call from a social worker that the funding would cease in January 2022.

That same month, the social worker sent an email to the care home saying Mrs Y was self-funding.

The Council referred Mrs Y for an NHS Continuing Healthcare Assessment (CHC) that same month to see if to see if she was a ‘primary health need’, and it concluded that she was not eligible for full funding, but instead eligible for Funded Nursing Contribution.

This is when the NHS pays for the nursing care component of nursing home fees. 

The NHS pays a flat rate directly to the care home towards the cost of this nursing care.

However, Mrs X contacted the social worker in February of that year and stated that Mrs Y’s funds were below the capital threshold for funding care fees.

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A month later, Mrs Y was readmitted to hospital but was discharged 15 days later.

By May, Mrs Y began paying £1,600 a week to be in the care home, causing her savings to drop considerably.

The report eventually concluded that Buckinghamshire Council caused large amounts of ‘distress’ towards the family, and has since refunded a grant total of £35,790 to both Mrs Y and Mrs X.

Cllr Angela Macpherson, Buckinghamshire’s Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing said: “This LGO judgement relates to a case where the Council did not undertake the correct financial assessments or good practice when advising Mr and Mrs Y how much they would need to pay for Mr Y’s residential care. 

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“We have now refunded all monies owed and issued an unreserved apology to Mrs Y and her family for the failings and the distress we have caused them. 

"We have also undertaken a full case review, identified where we got this wrong and why the incorrect advice was given.

“As a result we have put in place further checks and additional staff training to ensure this does not happen again.”