Patients illegally charged for care will have 28 days to accept compensation

PATIENTS illegally charged by the State for public nursing home care will be given 28 days to accept or reject the offers of repayment made to them.

The State is expected to refund about e1 billion under the repayment scheme, which will be launched next month.

Priority will be given to the 20,000 patients who are still alive. Refunds will be paid at a later stage to the estates of between 40,000 and 50,000 dead patients.

The department of health expects the average payment, based on a typical three-year stay in a nursing home, will be €15,000.

However, residents who spent longer terms in care will be entitled to significantly higher payments.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) appointed a consortium comprising accountancy firm KPMG and law firm McCann Fitzgerald to administer the repayment scheme. It was originally expected that the scheme would begin in mid-July.

However, a HSE spokesman confirmed yesterday that there had been a delay, saying the scheme would be launched “in the next two to three weeks.”

Health minister Mary Harney recently informed Fine Gael TD Paul Kehoe of the manner in which repayments would be made.

“On submission of an application and receipt of notification of the calculated amount of repayment due, the applicant will have a period of 28 days in which to appeal or reject the calculated amount of repayment due prior to the issuing of money by the HSE,” she said.

“Repayments will be made as soon as possible, with priority given to living persons, and provision has been made for repayments to continue up to 2008.”

Separately, the department is facing 175 legal actions in respect of the illegal nursing home charges.

Department secretary general Michael Scanlan recently informed an Oireachtas committee that his office was in constant contact with the Attorney General on the issue.

But he opted not to provide further detail.