Continuing health care funding

[Guest]

Hi Everyone
Mum now has a carer once daily for personal care, we have been told that we get the service free for the 1st 6 weeks then will have to start to pay. She was assessed during a hospital stay for Continuing Care Funding but was told she did not meet the criteria but we are not sure what the criteria is, my Dad was with her when it was done but did not ask any questions regarding the assessment. Can anyone shed any light on it for me? to be honest I would be a little reluctant to pay the carer fees as up to now its been less than impressive.
Thanks all
Kate x

[john]

Hi Kate,
Like most things chc is not black and white. Assessment is to determine whether mum has personal care needs or health care needs. My wife had a 7 month argument before NHs finally agreed to pay. If she has a rig or peg then feeding is a health care need ,if she can still eat then this is a personal care need we were told. Absolutely crazy everything in mnd is a result of failing health so it follows to my simple mind that all care is health related. I have posted a link to 2 important court cases in the past that were supposed to clarify the law. However it is still a post code lottery. In Yorkshire they are having to pay back millions to people who were wrongly refused chc. Some had even had to sell their homes to pay for care.
This ,to me, is an area where the mnda could help by establishing a right for all sufferers. There are not that many in the UK in real terms and generally speaking patients with mnd do not usually use very much of the NHs resources dealing with their illness. Maybe if they scrapped the almost pointless periodic gatherings with hospital based mnd teams the money freed up could be used to provide quality home care for those unfortunate enough to be victims of this dreadful illness.
I will see if I can find the link to the court cases and post it for you.
John

[fishmate12]

Hi Kate,

As far as i know, personal care is first Assessed by Local Authority Social Services, by what

they call an Assessment Team, after 6 weeks you'll then go on to Mainstream Care, providing

they have spaces that correspond with the times/days you've requested.

If Mainstream cannot "fit you in" meanwhile, Assessment will carry on doing the care requested.

It's immaterial what team does the care, you'll be charged after 6 weeks at approx £24 per hour.

The criteria as far as i know is--if under 65 yrs old,--you pay for it.




p.s.

When you're paying for care, make sure you've got as much prep done as possible, buy that

i mean towels out, clothes out, Ect, because the longer the time Carers spend doing things,

the "session" will cost more, i.e. 20 mins costs £7.73--30 mins costs £11.60

Make sure you note individual times, because carers will put any time on their time-sheet.

Ray

[magic]

Afraid Peter is over 65 and we have to contribute £125 a week to care costs. CHC does have a very stringent criteria and there are details of this available on the net. I have just stopped Peter's carers because strangers were turning up with no knowledge of Peter or MND. Like John, think criteria and the defining of symptoms as care, rather than health, is insidious. Would welcome MNDA initiative on this.

Magic

[Andrew]

Hi Everyone
Mum now has a carer once daily for personal care, we have been told that we get the service free for the 1st 6 weeks then will have to start to pay. She was assessed during a hospital stay for Continuing Care Funding but was told she did not meet the criteria but we are not sure what the criteria is, my Dad was with her when it was done but did not ask any questions regarding the assessment. Can anyone shed any light on it for me? to be honest I would be a little reluctant to pay the carer fees as up to now its been less than impressive.
Thanks all
Kate x

Hi Kate,

Personal care and CHC are extremely complex issues and I'm sorry that you've had problems with them. I've spoken to Connect about this today and they suggest giving them a call. They will be able to ask you questions specific to your needs and hopefully get the best care and funding for your Mum. The number to call is 08457 626262.

Also, our information sheet 'NHS Continuing Healthcare' may also we useful to you:

http://www.mndassociation.org/Resources/MNDA/Life%20with%20MND/Information%20sheet%2022D%20-%20NHS%20Continuing%20Healthcare.pdf

Best wishes,

Andrew

[Xmas20]

Hi Kate,
My mum has just been granted chc , the district nurse had to come and do an initial assessment , depending on mums needs it then goes on to a much more intense questionnaire, then it went to panel which consisted of the social worker, district nurses chc assessor and our family members where we discussed all of my mums needs, she has very progressive mnd with frontal memory loss, we have had a lot of help through ot, physio, dietician Arthur rank hospice , addenbrookes mnd centre and mnd association . Tomorrow will be the first day careers come in, although my sister and I are with mum from when she gets up to when she goes to bed cause she can't be left alone as she now on peg feeding done by a peg for 10 hours through the day, as there is no one here through the night, although the hospice has told us that we should get careers to cover through the night if needed. Please contact the mnd association you will find lots of usefull info from them,
Sharon