London Borough of Wandsworth (05B02414)
Adult care services Maladministration causing injustice
27 September 2006
‘Ms Armstrong’ complained that the Council had refused to reimburse her the fees that she paid for nursing care for her elderly and infirm, mother ‘Mrs Baker’ (not their real names for legal reasons). Mrs Baker had suffered a fall in May 2003 and been admitted to hospital. Ms Armstrong paid for the nursing care so that her mother could be discharged from hospital back into the residential home where she had lived for some years (‘Cherry House’).
Her mother had been assessed as needing nursing care, but Cherry House was not registered to provide this, so the Council decided that she should not return there. Ms Armstrong and the Council were not able to agree on another place of care, and Mrs Baker remained in hospital until Ms Armstrong agreed to pay for 24-hour private nursing care for her mother. She was then able to return to Cherry House in October 2003.
Mrs Baker had sought judicial review of the Council’s decision that she should not return to Cherry House. Eventually, the Court of Appeal quashed the Council’s decision, finding it to be defective.
After the hearing in December 2003, Ms Armstrong told the management company of Cherry House that she no longer had funds to pay for the nursing care. The management company then decided that nursing care could be made available, if required, from another care institution in the same building. So Mrs Baker was able to stay at Cherry House, without further payments from Ms Armstrong, until she died in December 2005.
The Ombudsman said that the Council’s assessments of Mrs Baker’s needs between July and December 2003 were flawed by maladministration. He also considered that, on the balance of probabilities, Mrs Baker did not require nursing care, but only residential care, between October and December 2003. If her needs had been assessed at the right level in October 2003, she could have returned then to Cherry House without the nursing care paid for by Ms Armstrong, he added.
The Council should reimburse the sum of £27,018.84, together with interest, to Ms Armstrong, and pay her £500 as some recompense for her time and trouble in bringing her complaint to the Council and to the Ombudsman.
Date Updated: 16/01/09