Mr Barrow’s Story

Mr Barrow, 78, of Ashford in Kent applied for NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding for his mother in law, aged 89 and says Farley Dwek helped to successfully secure funding which saves his family £1,400 per week in BUPA care home fees…

“Twelve years ago my mother in law was diagnosed with Altzheimer’s Vascular Dementia and stayed in her own home all that time with support from the family and other local health professionals. She was adamant she didn’t want to go in to a care home and we supported her with this choice for many years.

At the end of 2014 we went away to Wales for the weekend leaving her with care support. She called an ambulance, which she was prone to doing from time to time when she was upset and disorientated, and she was taken to hospital. We received a call from the hospital and dashed back to be with her. It was clear at that stage that she needed more intensive support in a care home setting.

During her six week stay in hospital she was assessed three times for NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding. The first time the assessment was done without our knowledge and we were rejected for funding and told to pay our own care home fees. We pushed for another assessment which was done – and then amended without our knowledge and we were rejected again. Again, we pushed for another assessment but this time we had done our research online and read about Farley Dwek helping families to get NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding.

We instructed Farley Dwek on a fixed-fee basis to represent us during the assessment. Farley Dwek guided us through the process and arranged for one of their experienced nurses to attend the assessment meeting with the local NHS assessment panel. There was a marked change in attitude from the assessment panel when they realised we had someone on our side who was experienced at assessing NHS Continuing Healthcare criteria.

When the meeting was over we were ushered out of the room and then called back in 5 minutes later to say we had been awarded NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding.

I feel like the presence of Farley Dwek in the process was the key factor in our family securing the funding and saving £1,400 per week in care home fees for the BUPA hospital that we had chosen. To say we are pleased with Farley Dwek is an understatement. We’ve been absolutely delighted with everything the team has done and would recommend any family in the same circumstances speak directly to them to give them the best chance of getting the funding.”

Andrew Farley of Farley Dwek, said:

“We see too many cases of elderly relatives diagnosed with dementia being rejected for NHS Continuing Care Funding. Although dementia alone is not the only factor in securing the funding there are other criteria which need to be applied. It is all too common for families who are rightfully entitled to NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding to be unfairly rejected multiple times. We’re acting for hundreds of families who are going through the assessment process and saving them thousands of pounds a year on care home fees.”