Wandsworth set to pay back care fees

Wandsworth Council looks set to give £27,000 to a woman who paid the sum in “unnecessary” nursing care fees for her mother.

Local government ombudsman Jerry White found that Wandsworth had wrongly assessed Linda Goldsmith’s mother’s care needs after a fall in May 2003 led her to be admitted to hospital.

She was to be discharged to the residential home where she had lived for several years but Wandsworth decided the home was
not registered to provide continuing nursing care.

She remained in hospital until her daughter agreed to pay for 24-hour private nursing care, returning to the home in October 2003.

In December 2003, Goldsmith told the home’s management company that she could no longer afford to pay for her mother’s nursing care.

However, the company allowed her to stay without further payments until she died in 2005.

Goldsmith said: “We’ve got to be able to keep our older and vulnerable people in one place if that’s what they want.”