Continuing care postcode lottery still a problem

2010-03-04 12:00:08

The government has admitted that, despite the introduction of the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare in 2007, there are still wide regional variations in the likelihood that a patient will be assessed as eligible for funding. The chances of qualifying for continuing care are up to ten times more in certain areas, including Shropshire, Hull and Liverpool. Meanwhile, people living in areas such as South-East Essex, Birmingham and Croydon are much less likely to be considered eligible. As a result, many older people with serious, long-term illnesses have to sell their homes and use up savings to fund care home costs that the NHS should pay for – a situation that the National Framework was designed to correct. The Framework gives a single set of eligibility criteria and a prescribed assessment process that all NHS Trusts have to follow when considering a patient’s eligibility for funding. But the rules are being misapplied or ignored altogether by some Trusts – often in a bid to conserve NHS budgets by passing responsibility for the patient’s care to the local authority, which will means-test the patient for their ability to pay. Cheselden’s managing director Colin Ball comments: ‘It’s appalling that, nearly three years after the National Framework was unveiled, certain NHS Trusts are still taking a cavalier approach to awarding continuing care funding. If a patient has a serious, over-riding health care need, their care should be funded by the NHS – it’s as simple as that. Instead we have a situation where critically ill people are being forced to sell their homes and spend their children’s inheritance – causing a great deal of distress – because they have been wrongly denied funding. I would urge anyone in this situation to contact Cheselden immediately so that we can review your case for current or retrospective care funding.’