MUM’S CARE EXPERIENCE HAUNTS ME
Ombudsman: Lessons must be learned
AWOMAN and her mother were left with huge bills and chronic anxiety after failing to receive the support they were entitled to.
Health bosses neglected to arrange and pay for care, leaving the woman struggling to work full-time while supporting her seriously ill mother.
She has since been repaid more than £37,000 after an ombudsman’s report found both had suffered substantial financial loss and acute fear of money running out.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman is urging Integrated Health Boards – which plan and fund health services in their local area – to learn from mistakes made and take action to prevent other families facing unnecessary financial strain.
The 61-year-old woman and her mother were forced to finance an NHS healthcare package for seven months due to the failures of the then East Riding of Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group.
Despite starting an assessment of the mother’s circumstances in May 2018, a Personal Health Budget was still not finalised when she died in November of that year, aged 81.
She had been suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, anxiety, hypoxia, a low blood oxygen condition causing shortness of breath, and a tremor.
Failings were found to include:
l Communication not meeting guidelines.
l Health needs not appropriately assessed.
l A clinical review not completed until September..
Reimbursement guidance not followed and case circumstances not considered.
The Ombudsman recommended that what has since become Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board pay £26,382 plus interest to the woman for costs incurred and unreimbursed care, acknowledge its failings and produce an action plan to ensure the same mistakes are not repeated.
The ICB has complied with the recommendations and after undertaking an internal assessment paid more than £37,000 to the woman.
The woman, from Beverley, North Yorkshire, said: “We were concerned that we were going to run out of money. We knew the care she needed and how much it would cost.