CHC Review Letter

[Hereabout]

My wife is bed bound and in late stages of alz/dem she is doubly incontinent, cannot communicate or move following a fall resulting in a broken hip and wrist, except to twitch her head and to open her mouth to chew and eat. Despite all this she was sent a letter by our local NHS Continuing Healthcare team addressed to the care home. The letter informed her of the review and when it was to take place. I did not receive a copy of the letter but found it by chance by the visiting book in a pile of letters at the care home, nobody told me it was there.

The way the letter was written (to her) indicated that the writer had no understanding of my wife's chronic illness and is out of touch with her present condition. She is unable to open an envelope let alone read a letter and act on it! The individual who sent the letter was the CH Nurse attending the review!

To the sceptical mind this could be seen as an attempt to give credibility to the impression that my wife is indeed capable of reading and responding to letters and the fact that I was not informed of the letter or the review meeting indicates that my presence at the appeal was not welcome.

At the close of the meeting I was informed that the CHC was likely to cease I am now preparing my case for a review of the decision when it arrives on the doormat.

 

[AlsoConfused]

They're a dreadful lot, aren't they? Commiserations. This is all hard enough without your CHC scheme administrator behaving incompetently.

 

[Trisha4]

I agree. We have enough to cope with as carers without dealing with incompetents and people with no understanding. So sorry to hear you have to struggle to get sense. Keep us posted X


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[Scarlett123]

My wife is bed bound and in late stages of alz/dem she is doubly incontinent, cannot communicate or move following a fall resulting in a broken hip and wrist, except to twitch her head and to open her mouth to chew and eat. Despite all this she was sent a letter by our local NHS Continuing Healthcare team addressed to the care home. The letter informed her of the review and when it was to take place. I did not receive a copy of the letter but found it by chance by the visiting book in a pile of letters at the care home, nobody told me it was there.

The way the letter was written (to her) indicated that the writer had no understanding of my wife's chronic illness and is out of touch with her present condition. She is unable to open an envelope let alone read a letter and act on it! The individual who sent the letter was the CH Nurse attending the review!

To the sceptical mind this could be seen as an attempt to give credibility to the impression that my wife is indeed capable of reading and responding to letters and the fact that I was not informed of the letter or the review meeting indicates that my presence at the appeal was not welcome.

At the close of the meeting I was informed that the CHC was likely to cease I am now preparing my case for a review of the decision when it arrives on the doormat.

What a ridiculous decision to send the letter to your wife, although it doesn't surprise me. When my husband was in the final stages of AD, I phoned our hospital to explain that he was too poorly to attend his monthly appointment, regarding his chest. He had Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (similar to Asbestosis) and visits would require him blowing into a tube, in different ways.

Up till then, I would turn his face to look at me, and show him how he was to blow. Some were continuous blows, others were p-p-p blows, others required him to blow, then stop, then restart. But I knew he wouldn't be able to do that now.

I asked to speak to the consultant's secretary. I would consider the person holding such a position had, at the very least, a triple digit IQ, and that is why, when she said "why don't you come in his place", I found it extremely difficult not to find a brick wall, and bash my head against it, hard.

 

[LadyA]

I (even after all these years on this forum!) still can't quite grasp the UK system - I thought CHC was for people who were so poorly, they needed continuous nursing care, basically?
Hereabout, on what basis are they saying they are going to discontinue this funding for your wife? I had thought that once you got this payment, you had it until death, unless your financial circumstances suddenly underwent a massive improvement - which is highly unlikely! - or unless your condition improved, which is equally unlikely.

 

[nitram]

With CHC the person's financial status is irrelevant, it is granted because of an assess primary medical need judged over 11 domains.

There is always a 3 month review and usually 12 month reviews after that.

A person's score can reduce.
A person with poor mobility and associated high risk of falls can become bedbound which means there is no risk of falls.
A person with challenging behaviour may become less aggressive.