Continuing Health Care

[christine_batch]

I have been asked by Head Office to talk to BBC about Continuing Health Care.

If anyone has any points that wish to have mentioned, I will do my best to enclude relevent information.

Next week, I have to go before The Mental Health Panel to put my case forward regarding top up fees I need not have paid (which would have paid my morgage) had the S.W. put in the correct paperwork.

It was only through the support of the N.H. Manager who informed me I should not have paid in the begining.

Best wishes
Christine

 

[Tender Face]

Hi Christine ... only just starting out down this road - but agree - if I had just taken what the SW had said last week arranging to have mum discharged from hospital I/we would have had to find residential fees, top-up and nursing fees .... I have yet to speak to anyone in the SW Team/hospital or even PCT who can explain 'the system' clearly ..... in fact was advised it was designed to confuse ........

It just seems so tragic to me that at the time we feel our loved ones need Continuing Care and are grieving because they are so ill - we are faced with this 'maze' to battle through - when the last things on our minds should be financial concerns or the hoops we seem to have to jump through whatever the financial situation?

The SW directed me here there and thither to glean information, the NHS Funding Team couldn't tell me how the 'system worked' - and yes, I got far more help from the NH Manager where we are proposing mum moves .... could there not be one central point of reference .....? (Mine is researching other threads on TP! )

Best of luck - know you will do everyone proud, Love, Karen, x

 

[gigi]

Hello Christine,

Top marks for speaking out for us all here!

I've no idea about continuing health care..what I do know is that the system is a shambles in England..

and Karen says it all...

It just seems so tragic to me that at the time we feel our loved ones need Continuing Care and are grieving because they are so ill - we are faced with this 'maze' to battle through - when the last things on our minds should be financial concerns or the hoops we seem to have to jump through whatever the financial situation?

I'm finding that with respite..having been advised that I need respite for me as a carer..because I'm low..
There is no help or support..it's up to me to trawl through private care agencies and find one that suits..to come and stay with my husband while I recharge my batteries ready for the next onslaught.

The current situation is too confusing..too complicated..too means tested..and seems to vary from area to area..it is not consistent.

This is probably of no help to you..but if you could highlight the problems that carers face regarding care at any level..you'd be a bigger star than you already are..

Good luck..love gigi xx

 

[merlin]

Top up fees

Hi Christine

One point might be relevant.

I was told by the home that I could avoid top up fees if my wife was prepared to share a room. But to hell with that, she put as much into our home as me and the very least she deserves is her own room.

What I didn't understand was why the almost 50% reduction purely for the space saving when there are spare rooms anyway and the major overheads are probably staff and keep which do not change.

Merlin

 

[christine_batch]

Dear Karen and Gigi,
Thank you for your replies.

This evening a very nice gentleman from Head Office rang and gave me some really good advice from his experience of handling Continuing Funding Cases.

Am I bothered about taking on the Mental Health Panel ? No if I can take on the local council regarding inadequate day centres for the under 65's and I just want the best for our loved ones.

Thank you I will do my best.
Christine

p.s. My dear daughter said "well it keeps you of the streets"!!!

 

[Laylabud]

Thank you Christine for posting this thread, i think most of us are confused by this topic, nobody from the NHS or SS willing tell you about Continuing health care, i only found out through other relatives, i applied for it for my Mum and it was turned down. The guide lines are very complex and confusing, i personally think that anyone who has this dreaful illness should be entitled to continuing care as it is a progressive illness, if you don't get it from the start of the illness then you will probally get it later on in the illness, so why waste time and money keep filling out forms and spend the money of find some sort of cure for this illness!

 

[Memori]

One point I think you could discuss is about what happened to my Mum when she was discharged from hospital, before going into hospital she had Alzheimers and was going to be charged for her carers at home and had been asessed for this, in hospital they found she had acute leukemia and was given a short time to live she was discharged to my home having been in her own home before living alone, the consultant said she would need carers four times a day and it would be fully funded on the NHS, but the Continuing Care Team said she was not ill enough, possably because she had such a strong personality and put on a brave face when visited I dont know, but I would like to know what is ill enough if dying is not? as it happened she never had to pay as she died three weeks after leaving hospital, but even on the day before she died she was visited by the team who were going to cut back on her two carers a day, because she didnt get them to help only talk to her, in my mind the talking was just as much help anyway, I was left feeling that some of the people who sit in their offices dont really get the facts of these illnesses,but saying that all the people who did help were very dedicated and kind and there was more help out there than I realised.

 

[christine_batch]

Thank you all for your replies.
I have a lots of documents to read regarding Continuing Health Care one is 74 pages long but I will do it.

You can appeal and from what I have been told - the powers that be do not even understand the set up.

I will send all copies on to a very nice gentleman from Head Office who specialises in this field.

Thank you very much
Christine

 

[CYN]

how ill do you have to be.

memori,my husband was refused con care by a group of two SW one matron of the NH and the nurse appointed to assess his needs, they sat at his bedside for the meeting and he passed away three days later. Their verdict was no funding. I appealed against this decision and they refunded his fees, but withheld the interest until i asked for it.

Cynthia