I am very sorry to tell you that the Appeals Judge has refused permission for the Judicial Review to proceed. Regrettably, we have now exhausted the appeals process.

I know that you, along with my campaign team and I, will be deeply shocked and angry. We have worked tirelessly over the last year in an attempt to correct the grossly unjust and unlawful CHC system and we thank you for your wonderful support - we could not have done it without you.

You will see below my comprehensive and damning criticism of the Judge's decision in a press release sent this morning. The Judge's decision can be viewed on our website here

One final piece of advice when battling with CCGs operating aggressive and unlawful CHC avoidance regimes. By using all the evidence available (care records, medical records, ADASS and DoLs reports etc) focus entirely on achieving one Priority or two Severe levels of need. In reality everything else is white noise and almost irrelevant. In doing so, also remember to quote the National Framework that states that just because a health need is well managed it doesn’t change the underlying need and this is what the DST domain score should be based upon.

With thanks and best wishes for the future,

Rear Admiral Philip Mathias and the Campaign Team

Although it's very frustrating for all of us, we still have no indication when the Appeals Judge will make a decision on whether the Judicial Review can proceed. What we do know is that there is a significant backlog of applications under consideration.

In the meantime, I thought you would find the following article of interest. It includes a lady who retrospectively recovered £320,000 for her late mother's care but four years after her death.

https://digitaleditions.telegraph.co.uk/data/764/reader/reader.html?social#!preferred/0/package/764/pub/764/page/223/article/243029

With best wishes,

Rear Admiral Philip Mathias and the Campaign Team

Further to our update on 11 October 2021, our legal team has hastened our submission and we have received confirmation that our appeal has been referred for allocation to a judge for determination. We will post a further update once we have any more news.

Thank you for your patience and ongoing support.

Philip Mathias will be appearing on Channel 4 News this evening (11 October 21) to talk about the Continuing Healthcare scandal. The programme runs for an hour from 1900 - 2000. Unfortunately we don’t know at what point during the broadcast the interview will be aired.

We are still awaiting a response from the Appeals Court judge on whether the Judicial Review can be heard and Philip will be talking to our legal team later this week to chase the decision.

Best wishes,

Dawn Harrison

Just to let you know that we are still waiting for the Appeals Judge to make a decision as to whether approval will be given for the Judicial Review to proceed.

In the meantime, I am sure you (like me) have been appalled by the failure of government ministers, politicians from all parties and other so called 'experts' to even mention CHC funding during the recent exhaustive debates about the provision of health and social care funding reform. As you will all know, CHC funding is the critical (and failing) interface between the two and the level of ignorance on this subject is quite staggering.

With best wishes,

Rear Admiral Philip Mathias and the Campaign Team

Legal Update 

Our QC has now sent a very powerful 19-page submission to the Court of Appeal, which is available under ‘Further Reading’. Unlike the two recently appointed High Court Judges, the Judge reviewing the case will be far more experienced. We expect to hear the result in the next few weeks.

Fundraising

The requirement to mount this appeal has inevitably resulted in additional costs. This, combined with the need to start work immediately once we hopefully get approval for this Judicial Review to proceed, means that it is imperative that we achieve the £120,000 CJ target as soon as possible. We are already 87% there, so not far to go!

On the assumption that approval is granted, I am already in discussions with the Chair of the CHC Alliance (a group of notable charities including the Alzheimer's Society, Age UK and Parkinson's UK) to raise circa £100,000 for the future legal costs. To put this figure in perspective, this is less than the salary of some of the senior executives and directors of these charities, many of which have multi-£million turnovers. A successful outcome of this legal challenge would have an almost immeasurably positive impact on the people these charities aim to support. Depending on the outcome of these discussions and negotiations elsewhere with charitable trusts and other potential benefactors, we may have to consider increasing our stretch target to cover the additional costs already incurred to support the appeals process but we hope that won't be necessary.

In the meantime, please continue to dig as deep as you can and continue to share the CJ link with your family, friends and colleagues.

Thank you again for your wonderful support so far but we now need one more big push.

Best wishes,

Rear Admiral Philip Mathias and the Campaign Team

Work is now well underway for the submission to the Court of Appeal. 

Your continued support is very much appreciated.

Legal Update

I am very sorry to inform you that the High Court Judge, Naomi Ellenbogen, has refused permission for this Judicial Review to proceed. You will see my views on this from the draft press release below, which has yet to be published (being checked by the legal team).

Importantly, the unequivocal advice from our legal team is that we should make an application to the Court of Appeal and I have given my permission for them to do so.  Having come so far, I hope that you agree that we should not give up on this legal challenge until all avenues have been exhausted. 

In the meantime please continue to support this legal challenge in order to pay for legal costs.

With best wishes and thanks,

Philip Mathias

Draft press release statement by retired Rear Admiral Philip Mathias - the claimant

It is extremely disappointing that the Judge has refused permission for this Judicial Review into Continuing Healthcare (CHC) to proceed. This was for a range of complex legal reasons, most of which would be almost incomprehensible to members of the public, including me.  Apparently I don't have 'Standing' to bring this case, even though no one else has been prepared to do so, and that there has been too long a 'Delay' in making this claim, even though many thousands of very ill people continue to be denied the Continuing Healthcare funding to which they are entitled. The Judge also appeared not to accept that the Secretary of State or NHS England has any legal duty to ensure that the Clinical Commissioning Groups complied with the law regarding the CHC National Framework.

It therefore seems impossible for the public to hold NHS England and the Secretary of State to account for this disgraceful scandal that has (and continues) to cause emotional and financial devastation to many thousands of old, very ill and vulnerable people, many of whom have been to forced to deplete their entire life savings and sell their homes, when their healthcare should be funded by the NHS. 

The fact remains that NHS England's own data shows that the numbers of people being found eligible for CHC funding has significantly declined in the last few years, when they should have been rising due an ageing population.There are also huge variations (up to 17 fold) in the award rates of CHC funding across the country that cannot be explained by socio-economic and health demographics. This 'postcode lottery' means that someone living in one area will receive funding (often 6 figure sums) and someone living elsewhere, with the same healthcare needs, will receive no funding at all. Evidence from the CHC Alliance (17 charities which include the Alzheimer's Society, Age UK and Parkinson's UK) also shows that 60% of those conducting CHC assessments have insufficient training in the complex CHC process and/or the necessary medical competence to assess the healthcare needs of someone suffering from complex illness, disease or disability.

In the last few years, the media, the public and numerous regulatory and expert scrutiny bodies have been highly critical of the dysfunctional, complex and unlawful CHC system. These include the National Audit Office, the Public Accounts Committee, the Care Quality Commission, the Health Ombudsman and the CHC Alliance. Their damning criticism has virtually been ignored by the NHS and the Department for Health and Social Care. 

In 2018, the Public Accounts Committee stated: NHS England is not adequately carrying out its responsibility to ensure Clinical Commissioning Groups are complying with the legal requirements to provide CHC to those who are eligible.  Patients’ likelihood of getting CHC funding depends too much on local interpretation of assessment criteria, due to poor quality assessment tools and inadequate training. There is huge variation between CCGs in access to funding.Too often assessors in multidisciplinary teams are inadequately trained, have never met the person they are assessing and do not involve the patient or their family in the assessment. A report by the CHC Alliance found that around 60% of healthcare professionals are assessing people without sufficient specialist knowledge of the medical condition that they are looking at".

Given the above, how can it be right that in our so called 'advanced' democracy that a Department of State and our biggest public body (the NHS) can allow CCGs to effectively have free rein to interpret the CHC regulations to their entire satisfaction, when CHC is not discretionary or subject to affordability.

We will be making an application to the Court of Appeal.

I attended the 3 hour oral hearing in the High Court yesterday (23 June 2021). Much of the discussion centred on complex arguments over issues such as Standing, Delay (and the legal precedence associated with these) and what responsibilities the NHS and DHSC have regarding CCGs.

In order to give this case the due consideration it deserves, the Judge will not make her final decision on whether to grant approval for the Judicial Review until Friday afternoon. Even then, it may not be a binary decision as it is possible that an adjustment will be required with regards to which Grounds apply to each Defendant. This may require further detailed analysis of the Judge’s findings by our legal team and a further discussion with me on the way forward.

I will give you a further update once we have clarity on all the above but that may not be until early next week.

With best wishes,

Rear Admiral Philip Mathias and the Campaign Team

With a legal challenge of this scale, complexity, and importance, I have always said this was going to be a marathon and this is certainly proving to be the case. The initial decision by the Honourable Mrs Justice Moulder DBE (which surprisingly had no date), was that approval for a Judicial Review was not granted.

In his robust response, our QC stated: 

Given the copious evidence provided by the Claimant in his August 2020 booklet and the reports relied on by him (see para 50 of Claimant’s Grounds) the judge was wrong to have found that the Claimant has not shown there is an arguable case of systemic failure on the part of the Defendants. 

Our QC is referring here to my extensive analysis of the CHC scandal (using NHS England's own data) and the damning criticism (hundreds of pages of it) from expert regulatory and scrutiny bodies - the NAO, PAC, CQC, PHSO and the CHC Alliance (17 charities). So there is a huge amount of evidence that there is systemic failure and unlawfulness across the CHC system. I also note that the relatively junior judge appears to be an expert on capital markets and derivatives, has not practiced as a barrister and seems to have little experience of public and health law.  

So we have renewed the Judicial Review application and have an initial Oral Hearing in the High Court on 23 June - with a different Judge.  Our QC told me, "It is very common for cases to be successful after initial refusal and I remain of the view that we have a good case, which is of such importance to a substantial number of people that it should be fully ventilated and given careful consideration by the court.”

Funding

You will appreciate that this whole legal process is enormously expensive. We are currently £12,000 in credit but to fund the above legal activity, we need to reach £100,000 of the £120,000 CrowdJustice target (another £7000) - and soon. With your continued support, I am sure this is achievable. I think you would agree that, having come so far, to withdraw this Judicial Review application due to lack of funds, would be an absolute tragedy. There is a good chance of the Judge granting approval on 23 Juneand once we have that, there will be considerable press interest and we are confident that other funding streams, which we have been working hard on, will start coming to fruition.

Thank you all for your fantastic support. Please continue to donate what you can afford and also spread the word (and the CJ link) to your network of colleagues, family and friends - some of them will almost certainly need CHC funding in the future.

The bottom line is that we cannot allow officials in NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care to break the law and, in the process, cause emotional and financial devastation to thousands of very ill people.

With best wishes,

Rear Admiral Philip Mathias and the Campaign Team

Legal Update

Following the submission to the High Court for a Judicial Review, unsurprisingly both defendants have objected to this legal challenge proceeding. Our solicitor commented:

"The lengthy responses from NHS England and government lawyers to the Judicial Review application indicate they are taking this legal challenge very seriously. Rather than countering the extensive evidence presented, much of it based on NHS England's own data, they have chosen to focus on process, procedural and legal objections to the Judicial Review taking place. They have also refused to agree to our proposal for a 'cost capping order', as they will know that Rear Admiral Mathias has limited financial resources (unlike them), which appears to be a clear attempt to deter him from proceeding with this legal challenge."

These are classic bullying tactics but I am not easily intimidated. Our QC has sent a very robust and comprehensive response, which is now in the 'Further Reading' section entitled ‘Ian Wise QC Response to Defendants’ Summary Grounds’. Whilst much of its contents are complex legal arguments, you will see his expertise and thoroughness has been highly effective at countering their deeply flawed objections. We are now waiting for the Judge to grant approval for the Judicial Review to proceed, noting that due to the pandemic there is a large backlog of cases.

Fundraising

Thank you all for your kind words of support and generous donations and I am sorry I cannot thank you all individually. Please continue to contribute what you can afford and also spread the word so that the number of donors continues to increase, which will help us reach the Crowd Justice target of £120,000.  Please persuade your friends and colleagues to donate, making the point that they or their loved ones may not need CHC funding now but may well do in the future, with significant financial consequences. 

My team and I are also working hard to identify other sources of funding and recently achieved our first success with a £5000 grant from the Andrew Wainwright Reform Trust that focuses on social injustice. Our current focus is lobbying the CHC Alliance (charities such as Age UK, the Alzheimer's Society and Parkinsons) to help fund this incredibly important legal challenge. Many thousands of the very ill and vulnerable people they support suffer the emotional and financial devastation created by this CHC scandal.

Thank you again for your fantastic support.

With best wishes,

Rear Admiral Philip Mathias and the CHC Campaign Team

Rear Admiral Mathias has asked me to write a page update firstly to thank everybody for their considerable generosity in response to his last email and secondly to advise supporters of the work we have been doing to generate additional funding and publicise the campaign more widely.

A number of supporters have commented that we should be looking to the national media for publicity or to organisations for corporate funding. We have an excellent ally in Sarah O’Grady of the Daily Express who has covered our campaign since it’s inception on 1 October 2020. Links to her articles and other media coverage can be found under ‘Further Reading’ at the bottom of the Crowd Justice page. Links are posted as and when published so please keep an eye on the Crowd Justice site for further updates.

We have also applied for Trust funding and are working with other notable organisations with a view to securing sponsorship.

Thank you to all of you who have so generously donated to the campaign. Every donation is very much appreciated and we couldn’t do this without you. Please continue to pledge your support and spread the word.

With grateful thanks,

Dawn Harrison and the Campaign Team

Application for the Judicial Review. This application has now been made to the High Court. The legal documents submitted (649 pages of them) provide overwhelming evidence that the CHC system is dysfunctional, unlawful and has (and continues) to deny many thousands of very ill and vulnerable people the healthcare funding they are legally entitled to. There are more details of what the evidence proves at the bottom of this update.

Fundraising. We have reached the impressive figure of £50,000, so well done and thank you. That said, unsurprisingly these funds have now been expended on the preparation of this highly complex legal case, so we all need to reinvigorate our efforts to raise more money for the next stage of the legal process in only a few weeks time. Having come this far, I am sure you would all agree that it would be an absolute tragedy if this hugely important legal challenge failed through lack of money.  We have one shot at this - let's not waste it.

Thank you again for your fantastic support - but I now need more of it please!

With best wishes,

Rear Admiral Philip Mathias and the CHC Campaign Team

What the Extensive Evidence Submitted to the High Court Proves:

• The CHC Decision Support Tool (DST), the process by which a funding recommendation is made, is unlawful in that it can routinely fail to identify people with a Primary Health Need, who should receive CHC funding.
• Since 2015, in the order of 50,000 people have been unlawfully denied NHS CHC funding, a financial figure totalling several £billion.
• Despite an ageing population, overall CHC eligibility numbers have significantly reduced since 2015, contrary to false claims by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) that CHC eligibility numbers have been increasing.
• Against overall declining CHC eligibility numbers, proportionally Fast Track CHC eligibility numbers have increased (low cost) and Standard CHC eligibility numbers (high cost) have reduced.
• There are huge and unexplained variations in Clinical Commissioning Groups' (CCGs) CHC award rates across the country (the ‘Postcode Lottery’), which the DHSC and NHSE have failed to correct, since agreeing to do so after damning criticism from the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee's report in 2018.
• A significant proportion of CHC assessments, which have huge financial implications for those being assessed, are being conducted by staff with insufficient training or the required level of specialist medical knowledge.

In the last few weeks the legal team has done a huge amount of work, with invaluable input from the Spinal Injuries Association (SIA). They are a leading member of the CHC Alliance (17 charities) and experts on the legal complexities of CHC and how CCGs routinely flout the law. The comprehensive legal package (totalling about 70 pages) is nearing completion and looks very compelling. There is greater emphasis on the government's failure to regulate NHS England and in turn, the failure of NHS England to regulate CCGs to ensure they comply with the law. Given the significant quantity of evidence, the QC considers it necessary to give the government a further opportunity to respond, prior to formally applying to the court for a Judicial Review early in the New Year.

Unsurprisingly, the legal fees for the preparation of the case are about what we have already raised. Broad order estimates of the total legal fees that we need to raise in the next six months are a further £70K but this will be dependent on the Judge's decision on 'cost capping' of legal fees, in the event that one party loses the case.

As you know, this legal challenge against the government is complex, lengthy and expensive. It is more like a marathon than a sprint but one we have a high probability of winning. That said, it would be a tragedy if it failed through lack of funding. Could I ask you to do two things? First, please dig deeper and make a further donation if you can afford to do so. Second, continue to send the CJ link to all your friends and family and encourage them to also make a donation. Remind them that one day they, or their loved ones, may need CHC funding. In the meantime, my campaign team is working tirelessly with the media, celebrities and organisations to explore all funding opportunities.

For those who would like to know more, since our last update we now have a website which describes, in more detail, the background to the campaign and what has led us to where we are today www.nhschcscandal.co.uk. Here you can meet both the campaign and legal teams and find out which organisations and celebrities are backing us. There is plenty of useful information for those who are also battling this dysfunctional, unlawful system and links to websites which you may also find helpful. 

All costs relating to the website, advertising and social media are borne entirely by the campaign team members. Therefore you can be sure that with the exception of a small fee that is charged by Crowd Justice, all donations go straight to our legal team.

Thank you all for your fantastic support and I wish you all a happy Christmas, not least to those of you who have the added worry and responsibility of protecting ill and vulnerable loved ones during this dreadful pandemic.

With best wishes,

Philip Mathias and the Campaign Team

We have now had the initial responses to the pre-action 'letter before claim'  from the Government and NHS England. Unsurprisingly, both focus on technical legal arguments why they believe a Judicial Review should not be permitted, rather than addressing the substance of the issues raised. Our QC is not at all concerned by these arguments (he has seen them all before) and for a number of reasons they are not valid. He is now deciding how long to play ping-pong with them before submitting the formal application for a Judicial Review, supported by a significant amount of compelling evidence, which has now been collated.

As I have already mentioned, a legal case of this magnitude and complexity will be a very long drawn out and expensive process. The financial and reputational implications of the Government and NHS England losing are significant and they will probably take every opportunity to appeal, obfuscate and delay but many of you already have personal experience of this type of behaviour by CCGs. Please be in absolutely no doubt that none of this will deter my campaign team, my legal team and I from fighting this battle to a successful conclusion - quite the reverse.

The Campaign Team's focus continues to be on fundraising to support the legal case. We have launched a new website this morning - www.nhschcscandal.co.uk and we also now have two celebrities onboard - Stan Collymore (the former-footballer and Daily Mirror journalist) and Jimmy McGovern (the screenwriter and producer). We remain extremely grateful for your generosity, so please keep on spreading the word and the CrowdJustice link. I am also humbled by your kind words of support and apologise for not being able to reply to you all individually. Your stories make me feel both angry and sad and even more determined to right this disgraceful injustice.

With thanks and best wishes,

Philip Mathias and the Campaign Team

Good progress is being made. The Judicial pre-action claim letter was sent to the Secretary of State and NHS England last Monday and they have 14 days to respond. More details of the legal challenge can be found in the 'Further Reading' section.

Thank you all for your kind words of support and donations, without which this legal challenge would not be possible. Please keep them coming and keep on spreading the word and the Crowd Justice link!

Kind Regards,

Philip Mathias and the Campaign Team

What a fantastic result to reach the initial target of £30,000 in just over one week! Thank you all so much for your donations, personal stories and kind words of support; they make my campaign team and I even more determined to fight and win this battle. The NHS was established to alleviate suffering, not to create it.

Your donations are being used to fund the gathering, collating and analysis of extensive evidence from multiple sources and the complex process of preparing the initial basis of the legal challenge. This first stage is nearing completion and the initial formal submission will be sent next week.

There is of course still much to do on the funding front, so please keep on spreading the word and sharing the CJ link! At the same time, we are also investigating other potential additional sources of funding.

Thank you all again for your outstanding support.

Philip Mathias