My husband has been bedbound in an NHS hospital for about four months and has lost a lot of muscle and weight.
The doctors want him to go home between treatments to avoid succumbing to infections.
I won’t be able to cope without night nurse cover, which the NHS won’t provide, so I have to hire private carers.
We have Bupa medical insurance, so I asked if it could help under its ‘home nursing’ cover.
I was told via phone it could have offered £2,000 if my husband had transferred from a private hospital but, because it was NHS, he was not covered. This is so unfair. Please help.
K. G., Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
Sally Hamilton replies: Your husband was admitted to hospital in October 2024 with a blocked bowel but the operation went wrong, leaving him with sepsis and peritonitis which required major surgery.
He was in the ICU and then a high dependency ward for a few weeks. When transferred to a post-surgical ward, he contracted Covid.
He the got the devastating diagnosis of lymphatic cancer and is being treated on an oncology ward.
When you turned to Bupa for help with home care costs, you could not understand why it turned you down, especially as it has saved a fortune in hospital costs as the NHS had treated your husband.
The small print states the benefit applies following ‘private’ treatment. It says it will cover ‘home nursing after private eligible in-patient treatment’.
I asked Bupa to explain why it only applied to those coming out of a private facility and whether it could help you.
It said there was a misunderstanding as the policy would not cover your husband’s care, even if he had been leaving a private hospital.
John Hunter-Brown, general manager for consumer health insurance at Bupa, explains: ‘Our health insurance supports customers at home when a nurse is needed to provide clinical services, such as injections or help with dressing wounds after surgery. The policy doesn’t cover nursing or carer support for assistance with daily routines.’
However, Bupa admitted you had not received the ‘usual high standard of service’ when you called about the claim and are therefore compensating you.
Mr Hunter-Brown adds: ‘To help with Mr G’s recovery, we’re sending £2,000 to put towards the cost of home carers.’
In addition, Bupa said its insurance is designed to give customers value even when treated by the NHS, so your husband can claim a cash sum for each night he spends in an NHS hospital.
This is set at £50 a night up to a maximum of 35 nights. Policyholders treated for cancer can claim a higher rate of £100 a night with no upper limit.
Bupa has now paid £1,750 (in addition to £2,000 to help with care costs) to cover the in-patient cash benefit at the £50-a-night rate.
It promises to also meet a claim for the period since his cancer diagnosis once it has received one. You expect this to come to £5,000.
You are likely to receive a total of £8,750, which you said was ‘amazing’ and has lessened your anxiety over bills.
Why won’t John Lewis replace faulty washing machine
We bought a £419 Bosch washing machine from John Lewis in February last year but, in November, it stopped working.
The firm won’t replace it even though it’s under a two-year warranty. Can you help?
M.V., London.
Sally Hamilton replies: A few days after calling John Lewis about your washing machine, it sent an engineer who said it needed replacing.
They said someone would call to arrange the delivery. After not hearing for days, you called again.
To your frustration, it said you had been misinformed and it was arranging an engineer to fix it.
You tried several times to speak to a manager or the John Lewis complaints department but were told neither were available.
Eventually, a Bosch repair service got booked for December 3 – over two weeks since you contacted John Lewis. An engineer fixed the machine and left.
When you tried to set it off later that day it was still broken. Having to miss work for these repair visits and not being able to wash your clothes (you are a hospital worker and need to launder your uniform often) was becoming insufferable.
You chased Bosch, which said it would send another engineer. This wasn’t good enough, so you came to me. It seemed to me your machine was not fit for purpose, which is a key argument when seeking a redress under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
As your product broke down more than six months after purchase, you must allow the retailer one chance to repair it before requesting a replacement or partial refund.
The partial bit takes into account that you’ve had nine months of usage. Under the act you would have been able to request a full refund if it had broken down within six months.
I looked at John Lewis’s two-year guarantee. It states: ‘If we can’t repair your product, we’ll replace it with the same model, or a model with an equivalent specification.’
Unlike the Consumer Rights Act, it doesn’t mention how many times it will attempt a repair before replacing it. I asked John Lewis, famed for its first-class customer service, to speed up its response.
A John Lewis spokesperson says: ‘We’re really sorry for the inconvenience caused on this occasion. We’ve spoken with M.V. to apologise and have arranged for a new washing machine to be delivered.’
You picked the nearest equivalent machine, which cost £479. The firm covered the £60 difference.
- Write to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email sally@dailymail.co.uk — include phone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.
