Care home - moving from residential to nursing

[Afishcalledwonderful]

Not sure if this is the right place to post. My Mum is in a BUPA care home and today has been moved from the residential floor up to the nursing floor. She is quite young (73) but has Alzheimer's and something called Capgras Syndrome. She stopped walking three weeks' ago (we have been told it's cognitive) and now she is refusing to eat. There is no more they can do for her in residential, hence the move upstairs and her GP is suggesting she is fed through a tube. Anyway, I'm just wondering what happens in terms of the extra cost? The home hasn't mentioned it but I assume this is going to cost more. Currently Mum's stay is funded by her pensions, pension credit and top up from local authority. If anyone has been in this situation with one of their loved ones, I would be grateful for some info. My head's gone to jelly.

And I suppose I mean in practice as well as in theory. It took ages to sort everything out when mum moved into the home in the first place.

Hi

I'm sorry you're in this sad situation..

As your mum now needs nursing care she should have a continuing healthcare assessment. If she meets criteria then her care will be funded by the nhs

The care home manager or community nursing team will facilitate this but make sure you ask/insist

Good luck x

Thank you 😊 I had heard of this but wasn't sure who was supposed to get the wheels in motion. I will pass this info on to my Dad.

As your mum now needs nursing care she should have a continuing healthcare assessment. If she meets criteria then her care will be funded by the nhs However, the criteria are very strict, and seem to emphasis unpredictability of needs (so actual nursing decisions needing to be taken daily, rather than the same nursing procedures being carried out regularly). There are many dementia sufferers in nursing homes who do not get CHC.

You are right, costs will go up. But you say that her pensions and pension credit aren't covering the full cost at the moment, and it sounds as if she no longer has any savings. So Social Services will bear the extra cost (unless she gets CHC, in which case the costs transfer to the NHS). There is also a small nursing allowance which she is likely to get if she doesn't get CHC - this will happen as a result of the CHC assessment, which in our case the home initiated.

The only theoretical thing that could go wrong is that the Council say "this home is too expensive for us and you'll have to top up the payments if you want her to stay there" but given that they're already contributing to her staying in the non-dementia part of the home, this seems unlikely.

So overall, I wouldn't worry about money at this stage and concentrate on ensuring that all decisions on her care are being taken in her best interests.

The whole free NHS Continuing Healthcare thing is a bit of a racket. Legally, they're obliged to offer it but yes, it very rarely happens. My mother had advanced Parkinson's, didn't speak really, no mobility and so on but was turned down for it.

On the other hand, one time she did get it and was fast-tracked. This was when a care home nearly killed her and she wasn't expected to live. So we got it for around eight months - brilliant! Just one thing. After they did this, we never ever got a care home to give her a drink again. Almost a bit like the Liverpool Care Pathway. I did get the impression that it's the golden handshake, sort of, hey here's free care and don't hang around.

Much pressure was applied to get her on a PEG feed, rather than getting her eating and drinking again, which I had to do myself.

Don't get me wrong though, a PEG is necessary when it's necessary and she did have it eventually. It's no picnic, but it bought her another eight months.

You are told your mother is 'refusing' to eat. They often phrase it that way when actually it can mean they can't be bothered or have given up. Have you seen it yourself? Are you allowed to visit?

BUPA care homes have an awful reputation.