BRITAIN'S first "NHS baby" has said she feels let down by a lack of proper care for elderly people after she was left facing a near-£50,000 bill.

Aneira Thomas, of Loughor, was born one minute after midnight on the day the NHS was founded.

She went on to become a nurse, and her daughter is following in the family tradition by working as a paramedic.

But now a long-running dispute over the care received by her late husband Dennis's parents has left Mrs Thomas questioning the system she held so dear.

"I will always praise the health service, but end of life care is a fundamental part of what the health service should do, and it should be properly managed," she said.

Let down

"I feel my family were let down — two elderly people at the end of their lives were let down.

"I felt shocked by what happened to them."

Mrs Thomas said her in-laws worked all their lives and did not claim benefits — her mother-in-law Hilda Thomas even carried on working as a cleaner until she was 82 — but she claimed the proper care was not provided for the couple when it was needed.

She claims the couple's care needs were not assessed by a Carmarthenshire Council multi-disciplinary team as they should have been, and that they received poor treatment at the Llys- y-Coed care home in Llanelli between December 2003 and March 2005.

Earlier this year a report by the Care and Social Services Inspectorate of Wales upheld a number of complaints against the home, but ruled that as the management had changed and systems improved, no action was needed.

The complaints made by Mrs Thomas included several incidents when an in-law had fallen while at the home and no next of kin had been informed.

She also complained that on at least eight occasions an in-law had wandered out of the home, and that the next of kin had only been informed twice.

Each complaint was upheld by the CSSIW, although it recognised that new management had since taken over the home and new protocols had been put in place to address those concerns.

A spokesman confirmed that CSSIW had recently been involved in the investigation of a historical complaint relating to the case and that the report of the investigation into Llys-y-Coed care home could be found on CSSIW website.

He added: "CSSIW is unable to comment on the funding elements of Mrs Thomas's concerns. This is a matter for her to take up with the Carmarthenshire Council."

Mrs Thomas is now facing a bill for £48,750 for the care the elderly couple received before their deaths in 2005 — and fears she might have to sell her home to pay it.

Mrs Thomas said: "They were both very ill and should have qualified for continued care funding with the NHS but we feel the council's social services department put obstacles in our way and did not assess them properly, meaning we had to foot the bill."

Symbol of NHS

She added: "We have now applied for retrospective NHS funding and it is now clear that these elderly people clearly fell into the bracket for that sort of care."

Mrs Thomas became a symbol of the brave new world of universal health care when she was born at 12.01am on July 5, 1948, at Amman Valley Hospital.

She was named after the Welsh Labour MP Aneurin Bevan, who lead the political drive for the service.

The mother-of-two went on to work in the NHS, and in 2008 she spoke at the Labour Party conference about the health service.

Carmarthenshire Council said it could not comment on the case while a complaint against it was being investigated.

Legal services business manager Nigel Evans said: "We are awaiting the outcome of an Ombudsman's investigation."

Meanwhile, Geraint Morgan from Southern Cross Healthcare, which took over Llys-y-Coed in November 2005, said: "We have made considerable progress at Llys-y-Coed and today it is well regarded."