To be shocked that Derek Draper didn’t qualify for NHS Continuing Healthcare

[Mum1976Mum]

Just sat down to watch the latest Kate Garraway documentary. I am absolutely shocked that Derek didn’t qualify for NHS Continuing Healthcare funding as his needs weren’t deemed high enough. This funding isn’t means tested so how much money they have isn’t relevant.

I have some experience of this as we had to claim for my grandad about 8 years ago. He had sarcoma and had to have his leg amputated. He had a prosthesis fitted and was actually pretty active! He could do a lot of things for himself but struggled with self care (showering) and he qualified for the funding.

I honestly thought that, should the worst happen, and someone needed a substantial amount of care that they would qualify. Watching the documentary, Derek needed help with absolutely everything! How on earth did he not qualify?

@Keha yep and it’s very unlikely to get 24 hours a day home care
I run up to 2 iV bags a day ( 12-16 hours ) so iV trained which is nursing care plus up to 4 iV meds 3 times a day etc
I do all iV dressings
trained on Mutiple IV antibiotics and it took 6 years to get more than 10 hours of respite care a week and now get 40 from CHC
Then the NHS tell me often as in the doctors when they are discharging home like last time when she was on IV antibiotics as well as her usual IV bags PLUS replacement IV fluids that it wasn’t hospital care 😂 and nothing that I couldn’t handle at home.
like what ?????

Perhaps the person who wrote that all women should vote Tory should read these accounts! No words can be said to ease the pain of all these people.

@IsadoraQuill
If you watch the Panorama on Hillingdon it is down to migration. The population of Hillingdon rose by 10% last year and that is true for many London Boroughs and other urban areas. Most workers who arrive want to live in urban areas near to work and to communities that reflect their own situation.

@Hayliebells - definitely an element of judgement. My mum couldn’t mobilise really but initially could move on her zimmer with 2 carers supporting- to the commode, and it’s physically good actually even such limited movement. The last social worker assessment kept pushing to say she may be ok with one carer, and maybe they could shorten calls. I pushed back on this and she said that they’d leave it as it was set up as she paid. Whilst glad for my ma I was appalled.
Our local council now has a new thing where people will pay for ‘planned’ care and not actual delivered care - so those that are ok on the day can be dealt with faster but still have same charges - also other way round but that’s going to be very rare as if a client consistently needs more they are reassessed. I am outraged at this and previously objected plus wrote to MPs (mine and mum’s) when it was suggested - still implementing it from April and I objected and wrote again, despite it not now personally affecting my family currently- no response even at all.
I recognise finding is cut to the bone but generally the current elderly did not expect this at all and couldn’t have even planned for it. I expect ultimately there may be some insurance or similar that can be picked up at a younger age - for further money making of folk.

CHC is non means tested but I have observed that people who have articulate families who would likely challenge get it rubber stamped whereas poorer families get it refused.

If the money is to come from the tax payer, then are you all willing to pay more tax to fund it so that Mabel's children can inherit her house? I'm not.

That's a typical, and entirely understandable, view. It's a very problematic one though, because it will increasingly erode the appeal of buying your own home and saving for retirement. Why not just spend it while you can, knowing you'll get your care (should you need it) funded anyway? That's certainly not a sustainable model!

They end up selling everything until they qualify for hardship allowances

@IsadoraQuill The problem with your argument that is saying that Mabel should pay for her care, can easily be made to anyone, at any age, who needs medical care.

Why stop at Mabel and her care needs? why not charge the better off who go to AE? who have a Hernia? Cancer? Heart attack? breaks their leg playing footie?

After all we ve largely removed eye care and dental from the NHS, along with residential care, lets go far further!!

We in the UK pay the lowest overall rate of tax in Europe, some 10% lower than in France & as you say, LA's have to increasingly rely on council tax, as Austerity continues to hit council funds & who does that hit the hardest?

So instead of asking Mabel to pay, why not ask where all the billions "saved" through austerity has gone?

Very common to not get funded care, Family members have used their life savings and then sold their home to pay for care

@Alexandra2001 but isn’t that the problem at the moment

parents of children in schools want better education and better funding

sen parents want better funding in the sen pot

carers and people with disabilities want better social care

people want better medical care

people want more funding for lots of other things

and yet not only do people not want to pay more tax they want a tax cut 😂

We had a relative who needed end of life care at home. We were lucky that the council provided it (because there was nothing privately no matter how
much we could pay!). Even then they flew in for the fastest 20 minutes to help with getting up and showered. They were so stretched. They must have had everyone wanting them at the same time. A local charity helped with overnight care occasionally. We all had to take time off work to cover as they couldn’t have done it all with the care team. Even getting the nursing team in to administer drugs was tricky as it could be hours till they turned up.

I don’t know how people on their own manage.

Basically End of Life care, needing a syringe driver or injectable medication to ease pain or agitation is all it is granted for now

How do working immigrants increase the burden on adult social care costs?

I'm not surprised he didn't qualify. You need to be extremely medically complex to get it these days.

I worked with a woman a few years ago who had suffered horrendous burns that weren't healing months down the line. She needed specialist dressing changes multiple times a day from qualified nurses. She was bed bound, needed assistance feeding etc They argued she didn't qualify for CHC funding because her needs could be met by carers and district nurses coming in. She died in hospital from complications with her wounds.

So instead of asking Mabel to pay, why not ask where all the billions "saved" through austerity has gone?

quite.

The one and only time I’ve actually shouted at a nurse was at the meeting to complete the application for this funding.
‘My stepfather is extremely disabled and subject to a DOLs order, so can’t even be removed from his care home even if we wanted to. For this incarceration he has to hand over all his income - less £25 a week - and live in a pretty dire care home.
‘When the nurse assessor said at the summary of the assessment that he didn’t meet the criteria, I asked her to explain how sever he needed to be in order to qualify. She actually sniggered and said that she didn’t know of anyone who met the criteria over the previous year and some were worse than him. I totally lost it at that point and told her she was rude, unprofessional and heartless. Fortunately my DSF was completely oblivious to this during the meeting which was held in his care home.

I was very surprised at this too.

@EatingTillIDie
They don't necessarily add to social care but allocation of funds from the Government are based on previous population figures in the Borough ( can't remember how many years) so funding is always out of date. Housing, education etc still need to be provided.

Well done -,I am crying as I read this thread. As a widow and mum to s teenager contemplating how I can afford to help her through uni etc and the desire to ensure when I die she has some inheritance to help her I am slowly realising that if I ever require continuing care we are both fucked

My understanding is that if the care would require an actual nurse to perform, you get it.

If the care can be given by non-clinical staff then you don't.

I do kind of get it - when the NHS was set up a lot fewer women worked outside the home, so they would have been expected to nurse their parents (and their husband's parents) in their own home. But it's so hard.

That’s what my friends partner said to my friend, that his parents were sensible to spend their life savings on multiple cruises whereas friends mum has a lot of savings. So the in-law’s are getting state funded care, and her mum is paying for carers to come in. Which she doesn’t want to do, so only did so when just released from hospital, she expects my friend to come and help. But friend is part of the sandwich generation - elderly parents - young children. She’s pulled in so many directions and is unwell herself. She’s been signed off sick for the last year as she’s not in a great place. But she needs to return to work soon, but now her mum has cancer on top of other health issues. So difficult

Hiya hen, I was a carer for a long time myself, I'm now my sons carer but it was always quite brutal, depending on the home. I did lots of agency work as well as regulars and bank staff, but I think about the girls regularly. Especially in this climate, we'd have 2 carers to 62 high needs nursing home clients some nights, just 2, at its most stretched. No nurse available. I'm devastated to imagine what's happening now. I got halfway through the jodi comber film about carers during covid 19 and felt like absolute shite watching it, because I wasn't working in homes (maternity leave) over the pandemic and felt really guilty!
I did include my elderly neighbours in my wee bubble so I could help them to bed and do meals, plus my own grandmother, but I felt shitty not being on the floor, so to speak. I couldn't return to homes with my wee ds, his needs are quite severe so I'm his carer and he truly needs that, but I do feel really bad, like I've tapped out of my job when it got super heavy.

Thanks for what you do, in a thankless and grim at times Job. I appreciate my fellow care staff very much, we graft, we love,.we joke. We're the dogs bollocks x

I was shocked too. My dad had Parkinson’s and later, dementia. It was really stressful managing the care he had with 4 daily visits and plugging the gaps ourselves. We did look into care home but there was none in our area that could manage his needs and wouldn’t take him. The nearest was 50 miles away in a much larger town. Says it all really. I’m sorry Kate Garraway and Derek Draper have gone through this but I’m glad someone is speaking up on our care system. It needs so much more better funding and management.

As soon as the relevant government departments get a whiff that someone needs help, two people in cheap nasty suits turn up on your doorstep trying to trick you.

they are there to solely find out what you are worth!

A very dear friend and long term neighbour of ours, has had her mother for the last fourteen years and she was 94 when things started going downhill and she needed help

These two council workers were left very dejected and really embarrassed when they realised the dear old lady didn’t own the house, she actually moved in from a first floor housing association flat after falling down the stairs, and never went home.

her state pension is all the income she has, no savings, except a funeral plan.

When they left, the demeanour of them was totally different to when they came, it took all my friend’s energy and willpower not to say “f* off out of MY very expensive house, Mother and Father never owned a property, they are like many, they worked hard and will die with nothing”