About 60,000 families unfairly charged for out-of-hospital care are pursuing refunds topping £660m.

Barbara Brogdon was admitted to a nursing home in Leeds in 2004, aged 74. However, at the time, her family was told that, based on her assets, she would have to pay for her nursing care. Two years later, the retired clothing factory manager had a fall at the care home, fracturing her hip. When she left the hospital, she had much-reduced mobility and, although under NHS rules she should have had her health needs reassessed by the then primary care trust (PCT), this didn't happen. In the last year of her life, she was diagnosed with a brain tumour, which meant she needed 24-hour care, but was still not reassessed and her family continued to pay towards her care. After her death, her son, Paul, discovered that his mother's care should have been funded by the PCT, under arrangements for NHS continuing healthcare – this encompasses any out-of-hospital care where the primary need for that care is deemed to be a health need. Leeds CCG (formerly PCT) has agreed that her care should have been funded at the time and, after a legal claim that took 18 months, her family received a refund of fees totalling about £45,000....Read more here