Continuing health care

[nitgel]

Can anyone advise ? It seems qiite complicated. Mil has been in hospital since boxing day now moved to a rehabilitation hospiral. She is 92.

She can barely communicate but does seem to understand what's being said, however ovet christmas she just seemed to lose any ability to walk and has only just been able to sit in a chair yesterday. Was bed bound before then.

She has a catheter and pads as she cant make it to the toilet at all.

I suppose i am just wondering what would happen next? The hospital can give no indication on how long she will be in etc.

We have poa but only financial. Is there something else we should be doing ? No-one is advising us on what may happen next.

Bump

Are you hoping to bring her home or looking at a potential care home for her?

Care home. We dont have space or expertise to support her.

Continuing health care is a form of funding, is it that you want to know about, or the process of someone moving into a care home?

Both really.

I was wondering with her needs would this entitle her to chc ?

Your Mum should have a social worker appointed to help plan the discharge if she's for a are setting, has she got one? If not are the nurses on the ward giving you and info on local homes?
You'll need to understand if she's for a care home or nu9home, depending on the level of intervention she needs.
From your description it doesnt sound like she would trigger for CHC funding, it really is for the most complex patients only, your mums needs sound quite straightforward.
Sorry you're going through this, it must be ever so hard

As PP has said it’s unlikely she will qualify for CHC, dependent on your CCG but most are very strict with criteria. The hospital or SW would be making a referral for the CCG to come out and complete a CHC assessment, assuming she meets the initial criteria (DST).

If she doesn’t qualify for CHC then she may qualify for social care funded support where they will pay all or some of the care home for her, it depends on her financial circumstances/homeowner etc. A Social Worker should be allocated to come and explain all this to you, once she is medically fit for discharge and to start the assessments .

Ask the hospital - someone senior on the ward, probably a senior nurse but they may have a frailty lead - exactly what needs to happen or change before she is discharged. Are they treating her for something? waiting for test results? if so what's the timeline/expectation? They should be discharge planning from the moment she arrives on the ward.

The hospital will have social workers who can help you with next steps, even if you think she will be self-funding at a care home. If she is going to be self-funding you need to start by establishing whether she needs residential or nursing care and then scoping out the local options. Most hospitals have links to organisations who can help you choose (free service).

Check out Continuous Healthcare Funding guidance on gov.uk, but it's pretty stringent. If she has over £23,000 in savings (or a house to sell) and doesn't qualify for CHC then she will be self-funding.

With DM we had a “complex discharge” team at the hospital who worked with a social worker attached to the hospital. Our process was complicated by the fact DM was adamant she wanted to go home (but that’s a different story!)

The social worker looked into the care home options and then they assessed DM to see if they could meet her needs.

Every local authority is probably different, but I’d suggest asking if there’s a discharge team at the hospital, or a social worker assigned to her. Hope that helps.

Thanks. This makes it clearer. I will speak to the hospital today. I am assuming that as she sill be self funding we can find a nursing home near us (out of her locsl authority) assuming they could meet her needs?

If she is self funding she can choose to go to any area that will accept her

You may still be eligible for some funding towards the weekly fees if she needs nursing care, it's called FNC and will be deducted from the weekly bill, although the weekly rate for private clients will probably be higher than the NHS rate unfortunately.

If shes completely self funding there are two sources of finance:

1. there's a "nursing element" payment of about £100 pw which goes direct to the nursing home (if she's in a nursing home rather than a care home). The home will probably apply for this

2. Attendance Allowance is non-means-tested. She needs to be disabled - and at 92 she's likely to have some medical condition. And she needs to have substantial needs. Get help (eg from Age UK) to fill in the form (you need to use the right language), and what you need to demonstrate is that without care she is unable to fulfil basic needs (washing, feeding, toileting, medication) and would be unable to maintain her health. It's only £48 pw (£72 if you get the night time allowance) but every little helps. Do take advice on form filling, though - it's not a foregone conclusion that you will get it. And you won't be allowed it if the Council makes any contribution to her care costs.

Don't assume a more expensive home is necessarily better.

Near to you is a good idea - you don't need to go every day (I go every 3 days), but it is good to let the home know that she has someone interested in her. And you may find that she lets you know about things that she can't tell the home, and that they need to know.

And make sure she isn't discharged from hospital until everything is in place.