Case 200800349 - Anglesey Local Health Board

Summary

Mr K works for a transitional rehabilitation unit (“the Unit”) in Northern England. He complained on behalf of a patient of the Unit, Mr Z, against Anglesey Local Health Board (“the LHB”). Mr Z was eligible for fully funded NHS continuing care at the time that the predecessor NHS body to the LHB, a Health Authority, placed Mr Z in the Unit in 1999.

In 2003 the Health Authority stopped funding Mr Z’s placement. The incoming LHB has never made any payments to the Unit for Mr Z’s placement. The Isle of Anglesey County Council took responsibility for the payments from 2003 and has paid since that date. However, the Council’s contribution has not kept pace with rising costs. The Unit said that it was out of pocket by many thousands of pounds.

The LHB did not take responsibility for the payments or investigate Mr Z’s health when the Unit approached it in 2007. Moreover, the LHB could find no conclusive evidence that the Health Authority had found Mr Z ineligible for continuing care in 2003 or before. Nor could it show that a formal decision had ever been taken or imparted to Mr Z or his representatives.

The Ombudsman concluded that the Health Authority should not have stopped paying for Mr Z’s placement. If it had not done so, the LHB would have inherited the liability for funding Mr Z’s care at the Unit. This did not happen and as a result, Mr Z’s tenure has been put at considerable risk.

The Ombudsman upheld the complaint. He recommended, among other things, that the LHB repay the Unit £110,000 in compensation towards the shortfall in funding that had accrued.

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