A dementia sufferer has won a landmark High Court battle to force the NHS to pay her nursing home fees.

Hilda Atkinson’s family wanted health chiefs to recognise that she needed 24-hour nursing care, free on the NHS, rather than “social care”, for which local authorities can charge.

Mrs Atkinson, 94, with the backing of her daughter, finally won her case against Plymouth Teaching Primary Care Trust. In a settlement approved by Mr Justice Wilkie, the trust agreed to pay £43,000 to cover nursing care between 2004 and July this year, and to pay future nursing home fees.

Mrs Atkinson – whose other ailments were Parkinson’s disease, angina, osteoporosis and deafness – left her home in 1998 after her husband died. By August 2000 her family, of Downderry, Cornwall, could not care for her any more. She has lived at Consort Village Care Centre in Plymouth since November 2002.

Many people have had to use savings or equity in their homes to finance social care. Nicola Martin, a solicitor with Hugh James, which has 400 similar cases,said: “This case has implications for hundreds of people throughout England and Wales. The issue is to do with whether someone is paying nursing fees because of a health need.”

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