22 Armitage Court, Sunninghill, Ascot, Berks SL5 9TA.
Tel/Fax 01344 620775
Our Ref: BUPA1.RTF 17th March 2003

www.NHSCare.info (public information)
www.NHSCare.info/EvelynLovelock (now public)

VF Gooding CBE, Chief Executive of BUPA
BUPA House, 15-19 Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2BA.

Copies:
EF Webb MBE, President of BUPA (address above)
Lord Wigoder QC, Vice President of BUPA (address above)
Sir Bryan Nicholson, Vice President of BUPA (address above)
BK Sanderson CBE, Chairman of BUPA (address above)
Alistair How, Regional Director, BUPA Care Homes,
Himley Mill Nursing and Residential Home, School Rd, Himley, Dudley DY3 4LG.
Marilyn Sayle, Matron, HOLYPORT LODGE Nursing Home.
Holyport, The Green, Holyport, Maidenhead, Berks SL6 2JA
Dorothy Leigh, Deputy Matron, HOLYPORT LODGE Nursing Home. (address above)
Brian Edwards, Bursar, HOLYPORT LODGE Nursing Home. (address above)
Eve Lovelock's Care file, web sites, others as needed.

Dear Mrs Gooding,

Subject: Mrs Evelyn Lovelock and www.NHSCare.info

This public letter is intended to both put on record, and bring to your attention, the fact that BUPA have been drawn into unlawful actions in recent years by the NHS and Social Services. This fact became clear during a 'phone conversation with Alistair How of BUPA on Monday 24th February, a few hours before my mother passed away at Holyport Lodge.

You will find this letter and detailed background on my mother's case on the web sites above. This includes my letter, ref HOLYP5 dated 6 February, which included the notes of a meeting with NHS and Social Services at Holyport. My receipt of the February invoice for £673.51 from Brian Edwards indicated that BUPA were not increasing the level of invoices on NHS/Social Services, and were therefore siding with them in my dispute.

My conversation with Alistair How confirmed there was no confusion within BUPA, and that you fully understood the legal implications related to Coughlan. I recognize that BUPA do not "wish to bite the (NHS) hand that feeds them", and how you could be concerned about your cash-flow should a large proportion of your private patients delay or stop payments to BUPA on the basis that the NHS should pay under Coughlan.

Alistair mentioned that I signed a contract with BUPA: I did, but I hand amended the contract before signature. However, I have decided to pay the £673.51 anyway, and will action this payment in due course, after probate. I had hoped that BUPA would have acted differently - perhaps even proactively to resolve this issue for your many care home patients, the majority of whom probably qualify for 100% NHS funding.

I have been invited to attend a small seminar in the Commons tomorrow, and may mention BUPA's policy regarding Coughlan, as evidenced in my mother's case. I had hoped that BUPA would have seen Coughlan as a means of providing extended insurance cover, without financial risk to BUPA, and might even have considered setting up suitable "no win no fee" claims procedures within BUPA or some other large, well established business. I see that this is not to be, and will therefore be pursuing this with other well known names who may consider moving into the medical insurance business.

I strongly recommend that you pass a copy of this letter to BUPA's legal department, and ask them to investigate where you stand regarding future potential legal actions, nominally against the NHS but also against those like Social Services or BUPA who may also have been drawn into unlawful practice. I draw your attention to Derek Cole's recent letter to Nick Relph of TVSHA in which Derek says, "we shall sue members of your board personally". You will see the full text of this letter, with others, on the web sites above.

I know little about BUPA, other than what I have been told recently, and I read within your annual report. I understand you are a non profit making organization, set up in the 1940s, and without shareholders to account to. I understand emoluments to directors amounted to some £2.22 million, of which yours was £546,000, and I am therefore confident that I am addressing this letter to the right person. I would like to know more about BUPA, including how board members are appointed and their policy is reviewed.

May I end this letter by saying how pleased I have been with the loving and professional standard of care given by all Holyport Lodge staff to my mother during the last three months of her life. I certainly have no dispute with BUPA and wish you a good future.

Nothing in this letter modifies or reduces in any way my claim for 'free continuing care' under the Coughlan Case for my mother.

Yours Sincerely,

Robin Lovelock
(son of Evelyn Lovelock and her executor)