by Elizabeth Faye, Carepal 24th
August 2017
A recent letter issued by NHS England to all Clinical
Commissioning Groups (CCGs), could mean patients lose out on funding they could
be legally entitled to.
NHS
England have notified all CCG’s that less than 15% of all full NHS
Continuing Healthcare assessments should take place in an acute hospital
setting. Basically, if you have a relative who is currently in hospital and
they need ongoing care, in a care home or at home, they are currently assessed
as to whether the NHS will pay for or contribute towards their care, prior to
their discharge from hospital. These new low targets mean that the NHS will
have to potentially pressure families to discharge patients, before it’s known
who is liable for paying for their care. To reduce this to less than 15% can
only mean that patients and their families are going to be left at risk and out
of pocket.
The recent letter from NHS England states that “CCGs are required to submit a plan for
improving this to less than 15% by March 2018” and that “CCGs are expected to ensure that full
assessments are only undertaken when required”. As many of you will know, it is already difficult
enough to ensure that patients are assessed as there is very little awareness
that this funding even exists.
We see a large number
of families who don’t even realise that their loved ones in hospital could
qualify for funding under NHS Continuing Healthcare, let alone know who or how
to ask for an assessment. At the present time, if they do get assessed, the
process is so flawed and weighted in the favour of the NHS that we rarely see
patients who are entitled to the funding granted it without an appeal.
If
the plan is to discharge patients before these assessments are carried out, it
will be so much more difficult for relatives to arrange for the assessments to
be done. More worryingly, who is to say that their care needs are being met
safely at the place they’ve been discharged to, without an assessment?
There is also the
financial aspect as to who will pay for their care in the meantime and if they
are found that the NHS should have been paying, no doubt they’ll have to appeal
for a refund. Yet again, the elderly and most vulnerable in our society are put
at risk and made to have to fight for what they have a legal right to.
