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Valerie Garnham |
Disabled woman loses bid to keep private care funds
A DISABLED woman from Holloway who wanted the National Health Service to pay for her to hire carers from the private sector has lost her battle in the High Court.
Valerie Garnham, a life-long wheelchair-user who lives in Hungerford Road, was seeking to overturn new laws on “direct payments”.
The 60-year-old, who suffers from a genetic muscular condition, receives monthly cash allowances from NHS Islington to employ her own carers. But the direct payments, introduced by New Labour in 1997, have been scrapped following changes to the 2006 National Health Service Act.
In a judgment published on Monday, Mr Justice Silber said there was “clear evidence” Mrs Garnham had benefited from the “enhanced autonomy and control” of direct payments – but that the “core principle” of the NHS was to provide free healthcare and that “medical services were to be provided directly to the patient and not by means of cash payments”.
Mrs Garnham, who lives with her husband who is also disabled, told the Tribune: “I do not want my staff provided by an agency because we wouldn’t have any choice over who they are.
“I have been employing one carer for 21 years. We are like a big family here. You would never get that kind of continuity with agency workers because they come and go.”
Mrs Garnham’s legal team said they were “very disappointed” with the judgment and that they would will appeal the decision.
NHS Islington insists Ms Garnham’s care will not be reduced if she loses her appeal and is no longer allowed to manage it and that it would support a planned revision of the law. |
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