Where is the line between a care home & nursing home regarding needs?

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Grandad is currently in hospital following a chest infection. He's almost back to himself except it's left him weak and they feel he won't be walking properly( been in a chair for going out for years). There's no medical issues except the medication( which hasn't changed ) and a problem with his hand ( which has been an issue for 20 years).

He moved to a care home in the summer and they are currently holding a downstairs room for him as someone else is moving to a nursing home.

Hospital are now saying he will have to go to a nursing home, they've not got as far as discharge meeting so no idea what the home think. We are a bit confused as his needs haven't changed apart from he will be in a wheelchair most of the time. He can move between bed & chair with support. He only went to the home in the summer( very much against his will initially but has loved it since) and it seems a shame to go through the trauma of another move.

He's also self funding , not sure how that works with nursing care? Especially as my parents are paying until his house is sold.

:( Thanks for the help.

I agree - care of the elderly is a tragedy. You can get paid two to three times as much to foster a perfectly healthy child, who will probably be at school all day. A twenty-something with a disability can get 24 hour care at home. As soon as someone's over the age of 65, it's scrabbling to find care home places an hour away when families can't cope. I know there isn't really money to throw at the problem, but a more equitable distribution of resources across the life-spectrum wouldn't go amiss.

Not so sure about the comparison with FC as I don't feel there is enough good places/carers not paid enough and care for those with SN is pretty sparse too my county not coming across well here is it but everyone should have a choice in their care . Lots of elderly seem to be paying for their care and still not getting any choice which must be the only area of life that paying for something doesn't give you an alternative.

Oh dear!

I was initially told it would be better for my mother for to be discharged to a nursing home as she would get better care while she was dying in a place where there would be someone to sit with her, as opposed to a busy ward. "Like a hospice?" "Yes!" she said. I then found out that for 'hospice', read 'any old nursing home where there was a bed'.

Re CC. The PCT refused it for my mother because she didn't have 'complex nursing needs', e.g. tube feeding, a tracheostomy, oxygen dependent. The LA won their appeal on the grounds that she needed a trained nurse to be able to interpret her wishes, should she change her mind about refusing food and water. But the whole thing was academic, given her age and mental state.

Everyone has their own agenda. The hospital wants the bed. The PCT and the LA don't want to be landed with footing the bill for care. It's only the family who puts the patient first. God help those who are on their own.

Btw, I don't think your parents are legally responsible for paying for your grandfather's care. It's the LA. (Tho' they can put a lien on your grandfather's house so they will be reimbursed when it is sold.) Topping up is voluntary, if you want a more expensive home than the LA will provide. I think, if you are paying, you do have a say in which home he goes into. But check with Age Concern. Ime, the LA can sometimes be a bit economical with the truth.

There isn't a choice in home so no option of choosing a more/less expensive home

Yes the LA have agreed to pay the care section until the house is sold.

Meeting got put back until Tuesday (cancelled 2 hours before it was to happen as they hadn't done the assessment )

Have more queries!
Grandad is registered blind , he doesn't do a lot at the moment so people don't always realise. When we've looked into nursing homes, out of the 10 in our area only 2 put visual impairment as one if their specialisms, which also happen to be the two closest ones. Could this be used as a reason for wanting one of these? Only one home (also one of the two nearest) says strokes as a specialism and the majority of his disability is stroke related.

And at prices! £850+ a week on majority of the ones in our area, this includes nursing but SW told my mum aporox £190 from NHS for nursing part. Is this the usual cost ?

Oh what a pain! So sorry you're having to cope with all this when you want to be concentrating on your grandfather.

Can't help with your specific enquiries, but worth a try. Medical issues will carry more weight than inconvenience to the family wrt to travel time. Was the assessment about CC or your grandfather's finances? An external PCT assessor came to see my mother and I was able to be present. (All of 2 mins looking at my mother. The rest of the time was taken up with her going through the ward notes with me and explaining why she didn't qualify for CC.) The LA told us to appeal the verdict, even before we'd been officially given it, because they didn't want to pay the full costs, tho' they'd be getting the money back on the sale of the house.

My mother was classed as 'self-funded', as opposed to someone with no assets, and the PCT assessor gave me a list of possible nursing homes for patients with dementia, so there was, in theory, a choice of homes for self-funded clients.

But when it comes to availability of beds, I don't know how long you can hold out against the hospital wanting to discharge. The problem is you're fighting on so many fronts, and the alliances keep shifting.

If you end up with a dispute with the PCT, the LA will be on your side. But if you are having problems with the LA, it's worth getting the local councillor/M.P. involved because they carry a lot of clout. Have you had any luck with Age Concern? They deal with a lot of cases like this.

Good luck!

The CC assessment. Financial one was updated last week as it was done last year and all that's changed is his savings are gone so waiting on house sale.

Cancelled again. After we arrived. Nurse refused to do assessment as he's on ABs. He's on them pretty much alternate weeks so surprised she was surprised.
We had a chat with ward sister re his drip/nursing home. Assuming he doesn't suddenly start drinking he's got it for the king term so nursing home has to be able to do that.
She's not expecting the infections to stay clear while he's not drinking, so not likely to stay off ABs long enough to get out.
Staff on the ward are v good though so happy for him to stay there for now. One nurse had sat and spoon fed him a cup of tea , took an hour.
He was refusing to eat for us today but he often refuses out help.
Think his sight has pretty much all gone now didn't seem able to see shapes/colours like before.

One of the problems with CC funding is that before it's agreed, staff need to prove that your grandfather has something whch will not change with medical intervention. So submitting the assessment now would mean that he was turned down (as they panel could argue that the infection was reversible and could be treated). Have been in that position (as a nurse trying to get CC funding for a patient) - it's so frustrating, even when you know the antibiotics aren't actually going to change care needs.

We had a lot of queries re other stuff though so would have been useful to meet SW ( who came to the ward but not to see Grandad /us, we didnt even know her name) and questions for ward staff.
Plus he's been on ABs for 3 days and my mum got a call this am to check if she was still ok for meeting!

Bad communication and not impressed with SW not at least saying hello.