THE Health Service Ombudsman has ordered Greater Manchester Strategic Health Authority to refund the family of a disabled woman who had to sell her house to pay for NHS care.

In a case which could have implications for thousands of other elderly patients, the ombudsman ruled that the now defunct Wigan and Bolton Health Authority had been wrong to refuse the woman funding after she suffered a stroke. The woman has since died.

Her case was one of four nationally where the Health Service Ombudsman found that health authorities had been charging unnecessarily.