Nursing home invoice!

[Daniellep1]

This morning I received an invoice from the council, the invoice was for over £5000 for around 4 weeks nursing care the care had been arranged for my dad, by the council as an emergency placement as his carers had pulled out of caring for him so he couldn't stay at home.

The problem I have is that as a family we were led to believe that as it was an emergency placement, that the local authority had found then the council would fund it until we were able to source a home care package. (This is what has happened previously, my dad has had two other short term intermediate stays)

We never signed a contract, we were never told we would have to fund this or even made aware of what the charges were. It wouldn't be so bad if the care he received was decent but it was very much sub standard, so much so that we had to report to safeguarding and a number of failures and also neglect led to my dad being in hospital with sepsis (they have also charged for the time he was hospitalised)

Do we still have to pay this invoice even though we were never made aware of any fees or told we had to pay and bearing in mind that we don't have a contract with the nursing home?

Thank you.

[TK-67]

Hi Danielle - do you have any correspondence on the arrangement, I'm assuming that there was a social worker involved? You cannot be made to pay for this, there is no contract & this would be your dad paying for it, they cannot make families pay for it. Go back to the council and query it.

[Daniellep1 in reply to TK-67]

Thanks for replying, the only correspondence I have from the social worker is via text message, at no point were we told that we would have to pay for this placement.

Text message

[TK-67 in reply to Daniellep1]

I’d go back to the social worker - their responsibility. Good luck x

[Daniellep1 in reply to TK-67]

I am going to do just that, thank you! X

[TK-67]

Keeping everything crossed this is an error!

[Diane831]

This doesn’t sound right ! Can I advise that first thing Monday you ring Jane Stein at the MSA Trust who is the social welfare person and get her advice. Otherwise try Citizens Advice.

msatrust.org.uk/support-for...

Diane

[chester2107]

my mum and dad used to get invoices but they were just for reference, as the carers were paid for so maybe that is what it is ? what a shock for you ! hopefully you will get it sorted and he also had a week in a nursing home which they didn’t pay for either

elaine x

[Hidden]

We had emergency respite for dad arranged by social work, and we did have to pay but it was subsidised by the council, and they told us in advance what the charges would be. I wonder if your local carers centre might be able to support you as they will have come across this before. If I remember rightly you're in Scotland too, and there is a separate application process for funding of respite care involving an eligibility assessment - the carers centre would advise. It sounds like they have put you down as self-funding without completing a carer's assessment. Kx

[MSAJane]

Hi, I'm Jane, Social Welfare Specialist at the MSA Trust. Please feel free to contact me via the Main Office if I may be able to help in any way.