The Daily Mail reports that a Wiltshire woman suffering from severe dementia has been denied continuing care funding as her PCT does not consider she has an overriding health need. The decision is being challenged by Phyllis Knight’s daughter, Angela Howard. Mrs Knight has been living in a care home since her husband, who cared for her, died three years ago. Even then, her dementia was so advanced that she remained in her home with her husband’s body for four days, unaware of the situation, until he was discovered. Mrs Knight now receives 24 hour care, at a cost of £825 per week, as she is unable to dress or feed herself. Her daughter comments on her attempts to overturn the PCT’s funding decision: ‘There are so many people having to fight these paper battles with bureaucracy at a time when they have got all these stresses going on in their lives. The authorities hope that people like me will give up, but I will not give up this fight for my mother.’ She has already lost an appeal hearing which took place in September 2009, and Mrs Knight’s case will now be heard by an independent review panel. Wiltshire PCT maintains that it followed national guidance when assessing Mrs Knight’s case, but a spokesperson for the Alzheimer’s Society commented that: ‘We are aware of thousands of families struggling to obtain free continuing care. The eligibility criteria need to be clearer.’
posted by Cheselden Continuing Care at
23:13
