Whilst in hospital, in 2013, my severely disabled mother, who is also suffering from Alzheimer’s, was assessed by a multidisciplinary team, which included a Consultant of Geriatric Medicine and was deemed eligible for NHS Continuing Care funding, on the basis of two “severe” scores. However this finding was rejected by the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) who, in their own words “chose to ignore the recommendation”. The CCG held another assessment in January 2014, where a “care worker” aggressively dominated the meeting and succeeded in downgrading the previous scores so that my mother no longer met eligibility criteria. I later found out that this person had no professional or medical qualifications. Accordingly I made an appeal through the “Local Dispute Resolution” mechanism, in July 2014, which refused to consider the process by which the assessment panel arrived at their decision and confirmed the findings of the January 2014 assessment. In this connection it is significant that no-one on the appeal panel actually went to examine/see my mother. Earlier this year I made an appeal to NHS England’s Independent Review Panel (IRP) who concluded that my mother “was eligible for NHS Continuing Care funding based on the January 2014 assessment”. Two weeks later I received a letter from the CCG which stated “the CCG does not agree with the IRP recommendation” and is refusing to fund my mother’s care.
I find this unbelievable- how can they do this?
Has anyone else experienced a situation like this?
What can I do now?
I find this unbelievable- how can they do this?
Has anyone else experienced a situation like this?
What can I do now?