Few appeals on care costs succeed.

About one in nine appeals for the reimbursement of care costs that
should have been paid by the NHS have been successful, the
government has announced.

Of the 6,713 investigations by strategic health authorities since a
ruling by the health service ombudsman last February found that
many people had been wrongly charged for long-term care costs, 770
have been deemed eligible for compensation.

A further 5,011 investigations are under way, even though the
government had set a deadline of April 2004 for all reviews to be
completed. It blames the delays on a higher than predicted number
of appeals.

Community care minister Stephen Ladyman told parliament that
outstanding cases would be completed by the end of July. He
estimated the final bill for reimbursement to be more than
£180m.