Dementia, illness and NHS Healthcare -illegal actions

[JeannetteR]

Elderly and very sick people are being denied the free care they are legally entitled to. It is the case for so many people and worse for those with dementia.This is even bigger than the contaminated blood scandal. Please sign the petition below. I will also post again showing where you can find out more about this. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/238047?fbclid=IwAR25tHtHQ_kxPJwmRNsrhFluQpBs_bfYruCJnLtf7OPLTTmdAWTybk-ESAA

To help you navigate the convaluted NHS processes.Excellent site for info.: On Facebook: Continuing HealthCare (CHC)

Thank you for posting this. Signed.
We are going through some challenges with my FIL, and get the distinct feeling we are being fobbed off or not taken seriously.

Sorry to sound like I'm against this (I'm not) but I found it simple and a very open process, if a little lengthy (took nearly 3 months to get a personal budget, agency would have been quicker). I suspect it's a postcode lottery. The criteria are set out (this was for dementia) and they invited up to 3 people plus the patient to be there in whatever setting you chose (their house was fine) and it took about an hour which included general conversation and specific forms. The assessor was definitely "on our side" and actually reminded us of worse case scenarios etc to include. Each case is different for for more severe dementia they fully funded without question

Thanks for the info. 3 months is a long time. I suspect that something quite serious could happen with my PILs in that time.

Three months is a very long time if the person is terminally or seriously ill.

Elderly and sick people are not being denied the free healthcare they are entitled to.

If they are home they are entitled to their health care needs being met by the GP and district nurses.

If they are in a residential home their healthcare needs can be met by GPs and district nurses

If they are in a nursing home their health care needs are met by GPS and registered nurses in lieu of district nurses and the NHS pays the care home a weekly funded nursing contribution per person to pay for this service.

If a persons healthcare needs are of a nature where they are so unpredictable, intense or complex or of a nature that they can't be met by the NHS funded nursing contribution or normal district nursing provisions then they may be eligible for Fully Funded NHS continuing healthcare as their needs are overwhelmingly primary healthcare needs.

If someone is considered to be in the palliative phase of their condition or their condition is rapidly deteriorating then they may be eligible for fast track fully funded continuing healthcare.

It's got it's flaws like every system but to say it's more of a scandal than contaminated blood is ridiculous. It might not be a perfect system but it's the system we have and people are getting the 'free' care they are entitled to, they just might not be getting their social care needs paid for too.

The NHS isn't there to fund the protection of people's inheritance which in my experience is what most of the people getting cross about not being eligible for continuing healthcare are actually concerned about.

Because let's face it CHC isn't about the quality of care it's about who pays for it.

Three months is a very long time if the person is terminally or seriously ill in which case they could be eligible for fast track fully funded CHC which can be arranged in hours, never mind days.
/weeks/months.

CHC isn't about providing care in emergency situations it's about who is legally responsible for paying for those services long term.

The NHS doesn't provide or fund social care so if a family member needs any kind of care the first point of call is social services. If social services feel that the NHS should be paying for some or all of that care then they will ask for a continuing healthcare assessment to be completed. It diesn't stop someone getting care it just determines who legally responsible for paying for it.

Stucknoue and hatgirl,

It sounds as if you have been indoctrinated into what the current NHS wants you to believe. Hatgirl, while you mention the Law in passing you do not explain it's relevance and this shows me you do not understand it's relevance or the fact that it is not being properly applied when assessing for CHC funding. I have a long researched and understand the Law around this subject. If the Law was being properly understood and applied by so called health professionals (or ignored by CCGs) many more people would get CHC as a Legal right. Also cases upheld in court in favour of the claimant would not occur. In order to be legally eligible for CHC a person has to have a primary health condition from which eminates the need either for health or social care. Our NHS heirachy have decided that dementia (for example) despite being a physical illness from which such needs arise is only a social care need. When a person is unable to look after themselves this is clearly not the case. Many people have been denied even fast track funding when at deaths door and all for the sake of saving money and because of the Government not wanting to alienate an ignorant population by either raising taxes or instituting insurance to allieviate the huge cost on families both mentally and economically. Many families give up work to take care of loved ones they do not wish to see go into care homes - at their own economic expense. Then comes the time they cannot cope and have to put them in a care home by which time they are themselves either too ill or old to return to work. The Government then makes them sell their homes - so for them it is a win win, thave avoided cost of initial care and then are able to avoid paying even when a person reaches the severity of illness that requires they go into a care home - they still self fund. I give dementia as one example as it is a huge issue where the elderly are being treated as cash cows but other areas of inequality are much in evidence as exampled in last years court case where the Equality and Human Rights Commission took the NHS to court over a case where they wanted to put a disabled person into a care home. She won her right to stay at home. Other cases often retrospective have been won by people who had enough money to do so because they felt it morally correct and that it may help others in similar unjust situations. If you do not understand these realities then I suggest to try to speak to the thousands of people who are going through this right now and not make statements on here that clearly lack full comprehension. Maybe if and when you experience this yourself you will be wearing a different Hat.

I work for the nhs and yes patients with dementia are failed and let down