My 90 year old mum has dementia and is deterorating and so needs to go from her care home to a nursing home.
The local authority has come up with a list of three with available beds, two of which we regard as unsuitable because they have poor ratings and even her doctor has said she wouldn’t put her relatives in either of them. The third has good ratings and would be our choice. However because the local authority has a “value for money” policy they want to impose one of the cheaper options.
Do we have any rights to reject their choice or do we have to accept that they can do this based on the local authoritys’s need to save money?
Are you in a position where you could let her go into the better one and then pay the extra fees yourself or from her savings.
Read the NHS Continuing Healthcare Framework, alooking at the suitability of a home, and the distance from loved ones.
Hampshire has a daily list of vacancies in residential care and nursing homes.
I waited until the ones I didn’t like, that were cheaper, were all full.
They wanted to send mum to one the opposite side of Southampton Water from me, a round trip of about 60 miles for me.
I refused due to the Human Right to live a normal family life.
The only local vacancy was the one at the bottom of my road, one of the best in the area, so mum went there.
Have the council done a formal financial assessment and given you a copy of it?
Is it a care AND NURSING home?
Does mum have over £23,000 in savings, or own a house?
Do you live with mum? Are you over 60?
The questions are far more relevant than might first appear!
Thanks for replying.
She was self funding the care home but the proceeds of her house sale and savings have now dropped below 23,000 so the local authority are funding it.
Me and my brother are both over 60 and cannot top up the cost.
She is in a care only home and I don’t think a financial assessment has been done as I haven’t seen it.
My brother is local to her and has been visiting as I am many miles away but he is away on holiday at the moment and we are worried they will try and move her whilst he is away and without our consent.
They have NOT authority to move mum without telling you.
Thanks Bowlingbun.
Is there a body that acts as arbiter in these kind of disputes as we both feel helpless?
Before she moves anywhere, insist that she has an NHS Continuing Healthcare Assessment, that you or your brother are present when this is done, and that you get a written copy of the outcome.