Interlocking thread … CHC Rationing : https://www.carersuk.org/forum/support-and-advice/all-about-caring/chc-rationed-high-time-to-ask-some-obvious-questions-33311?hilit=chc%20rationing\
Not to mention the main GREEN PAPER / SOCIAL CARE one : https://www.carersuk.org/forum/support-and-advice/all-about-caring/social-care-funding-green-or-red-herring-paper-various-schemes-and-utter-madness-all-together-in-this-thread-32659?hilit=green%20paper
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How NHS could save your home if it played fair on dementia care funding ( But be prepared for an undignified battle to prove you are ill enough ).> **Thousands may needlessly be selling homes after being denied NHS funding.
But the NHS will pay some people’s care fees if they have severe medical needs.
Of those who apply for continuing healthcare funding, many are unfairly refused.**
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**_Thousands of dementia patients may needlessly be selling their homes after being wrongly denied NHS funding, legal experts claim.
Solicitors who specialise in fighting for funding say not enough people know that the NHS will pay their care fees if they have severe medical needs.
And of those who apply for NHS continuing healthcare (CHC) funding, many are unfairly refused, the lawyers claim.
Complaints from families denied the care money have tripled in four years, according to figures from law firm Nockolds.
In the worst cases, local councils are agreeing to funding and then later taking it away, despite the patient’s health deteriorating.
The NHS will pay for nursing care only if you have complex, severe or unpredictable health needs, including advanced dementia.
But solicitors firm Farley Dwek estimates that more than 100,000 people are unaware they should be receiving the NHS funding and may be entitled to reclaim money they’ve spent on care.The firm says this means they may be unnecessarily spending around £4.8 billion of their own money on fees.
Director Andrew Farley says: ‘Millions of people have had to sell their homes to pay for care when had they been considered for continuing healthcare funding, they may have qualified.’
The Mail is campaigning to ensure dementia patients are never forced to sell their homes to pay for care.
At present, local councils will contribute to the cost of your care only if your income, savings and assets total less than £23,250.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has backed our campaign and promised to fix the social care crisis ‘once and for all’.
Local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for assessing whether a patient is entitled to continuing healthcare funding. The patient is typically reassessed every year, so funding can be later withdrawn.
The funding will cover the cost of your care — whether it be in your home or in a care home. Weekly fees for dementia patients can cost more than £1,000.
Money Mail told last year how local health authority figures showed a 272 per cent rise in the number of people being stripped of CHC funding after reassessment.> Tim Davies, managing director of Compass CHC, says his legal firm receives around 1,000 queries a month from people worried they were needlessly paying for care.‘Many people aren’t even told this funding exists,’ he says.
Requests to the NHS for independent reviews of decisions not to fund have risen from 383 in 2014/15 to 949 in 2018/19, according to the figures from Nockolds.
Daniel Winter, a partner at the firm, says: ‘The decisions on eligibility are not consistent across clinical commissioning groups, which has left chronically ill patients facing uncertainty.
The CCGs and the NHS are tightening their belts. Their interpretation of the guidelines has become more and more restrictive, resulting in some obviously deserving cases being rejected.’
Claire Davis, director of Solicitors for the Elderly, says: ‘Those who qualify as being eligible for NHS continuing healthcare tend to be people with a very high level of healthcare needs, requiring support and assistance on an ongoing basis. A huge fear for those who’ve qualified would be having the care taken away.’
Vivian Blowey, 86, has vascular dementia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and is wheelchair bound.
But her local CCG will not grant her NHS funding, so around £200,000 of her life savings has been eaten up by care fees.
Her son, Kevin, says Vivian’s flat in Dartford, Kent, has already been sold to meet her care home bills of £3,780 a month.
Kevin, 63, a retired jeweller, has had three appeals against the decision refused by NHS Dartford Gravesham and Swanley CCG. ‘I think they’ll only pay out when they are forced to,’ he says.
A spokesman for Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley CCG says: ‘Our appeal process is fair, robust and transparent and follows the framework set down by the Department of Health.’
Lucy Hutchinson, 88, devoted her working life to the NHS in her career as a medical secretary. But now her daughter, Anne, is fighting for the NHS to pay her £5,000 monthly nursing home bills.
Lucy suffers from rare neurological disorder stiff-person syndrome as well as having Alzheimer’s and diabetes. She cannot move or feed herself without help.
When she moved into a nursing home in late 2017, Anne applied for continuing healthcare funding, but was told Lucy was ineligible.
Anne, of Fareham, Hants, is appealing the decision, but fears her mother may not live long enough to benefit.
Anne, 54, says: ‘My mother worked for the NHS but we are seeing a far darker side to it.’
A spokesman for NHS Southampton City CCG says it does not comment on individual cases,
Colville Lobendhan has needed round-the-clock care since he was paralysed in a gardening accident 13 years ago. But Croydon CCG stripped him of funding last year.
And as his pensions pay more than £23,000 a year, the grandfather-of-seven has been refused local authority funding, too.
Son Treville, 55, who is appealing the decision, says: ‘He is dependent on 24-hour care. Everything has to be done for him.’
A NHS Croydon CCG spokesman says Mr Lobendhan is eligible to receive NHS-funded nursing care of £165.56 a week. She adds: ‘Patients’ needs can and do change, so all cases are reviewed annually.’
A NHS spokesman says: 'NHS spending on continuing healthcare is increasing and it is for local health groups to manage assessments based on demand in their area._**
A good article … full marks to the Daily Chuckle … covers virtually everything detailed elsewhere on this forum.
