Row over care home funding for elderly man

Press Association
Friday August 17, 2007
SocietyGuardian.co.uk

A 78-year-old man is facing eviction from a nursing home after being told he is not frail enough to qualify for free nursing care, despite suffering three heart attacks.

Retired farmer Edwin Coglan, 78, from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, paid more than £ 40, 000 from the sale of his house for care at the Summer Lane home in the town.

But that money has now run out and North Somerset council refused to pay his £ 500-a-month fees. He was offered a third-floor flat instead, but the housing association which owns the flat said the accommodation was unsuitable for a man in such poor health.

After an outcry from Mr Coglan's family and charities, the council said it would reassess the case, but would not be paying for him to stay in the home.

A spokesman said two assessments by social workers concluded he did not need nursing home care. " Mr Coglan and his family have now challenged the accuracy of these assessments, " he said. " A further review of Mr Coglan's needs is therefore taking place. This includes a reassessment by the primary care trust of his nursing needs."

Mr Coglan's son, Andrew, said his father could not look after himself because of his failing health and mild dementia. " They offered him a flat on the third floor but he can hardly walk, and he's breathless because of his three heart attacks, " he said. " All he wanted was a peaceful retirement and now he faces being evicted."

He cannot look after his father because he spends all his time caring for his terminally ill wife, Helen, and their three children.

A spokeswoman for Nightingale Premier Healthcare, which owns Summer Lane, said the firm was losing money because of the stand-off.

The Local Government Association blamed a lack of central funding for Mr Coglan's plight.

David Rogers, the chairman of the association's community wellbeing board, said: " Councils want to provide the services older people need but are increasingly unable to do so because central government funding has not kept pace with the demands of an ageing population.

" Ministers must turn with urgency to the long-term overhaul of the future funding and focus of elderly care services. It is unjust that people have to wait until their life is threatened before they receive care. If we are to meet the needs and aspirations of an ageing population and change the services people use for the better, the social care system needs root and branch reform."

Kate Jopling, head of public affairs at Help the Aged, said Mr Coglan's case highlighted how difficult it was for elderly people to claim free nursing care.

" It just beggars belief that he doesn't meet the eligibility criteria, " she said. " The bar gets higher each year and the threshold is now so high, few people qualify for free residential care.

" What they fail to take into account is this care home has become his home. The council can't just apply cold, hard economics. The need to consider the circumstances in his case."