We have a meeting for the 2nd assessment for CHC on .5/02/19. I have asked several times to see Mum's care notes but have been told they are not yet written up. I have sent an email requesting to see them well before the meeting - no response. I called the manager today who more or less said she is too busy at the moment (I believe they are written up by the nurses ) I really need this documentation or have sight of it so I can present Mum's case effectively with evidence.. Has anyone had experience of this? I have thought about calling the CCG to rearrange if possible.
I have been through the CHC inspection and the 3 month review with my dad. He was awarded the funding and it was agreed at the 3 month review that it would continue, so next review in 12 months.
Regarding the documentation, I had to trust that the care home had their information in order as I hadn't viewed it as it's all kept electronically now. The staff input data on tablet/phones so it's updated constantly. But as well as their normal records dad's Social worker had asked them to keep an ABC chart, which they have continued to do. I have also kept notes on my phone under the notes section of all incidents that I am aware off.
During the assessment, there was two representatives from the CHC team, the unit nurse and myself, plus my dad but that wasn't necessary he had just followed me into the room and they said it was OK for him to stay there, the Social worker said she would have attended too, but unfortunately had a prior meeting booked, so she met with the CHC team a couple of days earlier to provided her evidence and opinion. The team did try to talk to dad and ask him some questions, but dad is lacking in communication and cognition skills which in some way was also good evidence for those two domains.
They asked me lots of questions regarding each domain and I was able to provide evidence from my notes and the unit nurse could also back that up with their evidence, which the team said they would like to see and take copies of. It also enabled me to prompt the unit nurse too to mention things as evidence. After each domain was discussed the CHC person would make a suggestion as to what they thought the severity was, ie Severe, High, Moderate, Low or No Needs and asked if we all agreed, she said she was open to discussion about each score but fortunately we all agreed with her conclusions.
At the end of the meeting, the two CHC representatives counted up the scores and informed us straight away that they found dad eligible for funding and it would be referred to panel the following Monday. The Panel agreed unanimously. The Social Worker called me on the Tuesday to say funding had been awarded and she would be handing dad's case notes over to the CHC team. It was about 2 weeks later when I got the paperwork through informing me of their decision. However, due to the care home fees being more than the CHC rate, this had to be escalated to the CQC Deputy director for approval. So the actual paperwork and funding didn't come through for another 2 months, but it was back dated to the date of the assessment.
I have been very lucky, because dad's care home has been very supportive and are quite experienced at dealing with the CHC team. There are quite a few residents in dad's unit that have funding. However I still need to prompt them sometimes as what they deal with and see as being 'normal' would not be tolerated elsewhere, they are a specialised dementia + unit so unpredictable behaviour etc is normal for them.
Good luck with the assessment, fingers crossed. x