Compensation of €168,000 to be paid
The Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, has today published her report following her investigation into the failure of the HSE to provide public nursing home care to two women over a period extending from the late 1990s into the late 2000s. The women, one of whom had suffered a stroke and the other of whom had a malignant brain tumour, needed 24 hour nursing care, and applied separately for public beds but their health boards failed to provide places as they were under 65 years. Their families said they were left with no alternative but to avail of private nursing home care.
In her report, ‘CARE DENIED - Failure to Provide Long-Stay Care for Under 65s’, the Ombudsman describes how the two families later applied under the Health Repayment Scheme* for repayment of the charges incurred but were told they were not eligible as the women were private residents in private nursing homes.
Following her investigation the Ombudsman found that the HSE acted within the law by refusing a refund of charges under the Health Repayment Scheme. However she found that the HSE was obliged to provide long-stay care for the two women. She found that it had failed to do so, and that the two women had incurred major costs which they should not have had to incur. The Ombudsman commented on the associated, unwarranted distress suffered by the women and their families. The Ombudsman also found that the failure to provide nursing home care, because the women were under 65 years of age, amounted to age discrimination and was contrary to the Equal Status Acts.
As the women had spent different lengths of time in private nursing home care, the Ombudsman recommended that €130,000 in compensation should be paid to one woman and €38,000 to the family of the other woman (who had died in the meantime). The HSE has accepted these recommendations but has not accepted the Ombudsman’s findings.
The Ombudsman’s full report, ‘CARE DENIED - Failure to Provide Long-Stay Care for Under 65s’ and a summary of the report are available on the Ombudsman’s website:
*The Health Repayment Scheme was set up in accordance with the Health (Repayment) Scheme Act 2006 to provide refunds to people with medical cards who were illegally charged in respect of their maintenance in public nursing homes prior to 2004, when the practice of charging for this maintenance ceased.
For queries please contact:
Fintan Butler
Senior Investigator
Office of the Ombudsman
01 639 5650
087 972 1138
fintan_butler@ombudsman.gov.ie
General Media queries
David Nutley
Communications Officer
01 639 5610
086 023 1420
david_nutley@ombudsman.gov.ie
Twitter: @officeOmbudsman
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