NHS Continuing Care Application

[Mary Dolly]

Hello everyone this is my first post here. My lovely Mum is 86, in a Residential Home in Wales and in the late stages of Alzheimer's for the last year or so. Mum is permanently in bed and completely dependant on the care home staff for all of her needs, including feeding. Her care costs (£3,600 per month) are deducted from her savings and so far this amounts to roughly £140,000. I have Power of Attorney over her Health & Welfare and also Finances and I have only just found out today about NHS Continuing Care and that she may be eligible. I'm partway through the 64 page information booklet on it which mentions this forum.
I'd love to hear any pointers or advice from any of you who have experience or knowledge about NHS Continuing Care and the best way for me to move forwards with applying.
Thanks so much in advance. Mary x

 

[Grannie G]

Welcome @Mary Dolly

Continuing Health Care is one of the most difficult provisions to get. I wish you success

My husband was granted it a week before he died and it hadn’t even been processed.

 

[Louise7]

Hello @Mary Dolly and welcome from me too, this is a supportive place with a lot of shared knowledge. As has already been mentioned, it is very difficult - although not impossible - to be successful at claiming CHC and there are a few threads on the forum which are helpful in understanding the process (see links below). They are quite lengthy but worth taking the time to go through as they include some useful information and tips, including input from forum members who have been successful in obtaining full CHC funding. In addition to reading through the CHC National Framework to fully understand the process it's also important to ensure that you have as much supporting evidence as possible with regards to medical issues and the level of care/nursing input needed, for example copies of your mum's medical and care home records. Hope this helps, and best of luck.

https://forum.alzheimers.org.uk/threads/chc-continuing-healthcare-support-thread.86059/

https://forum.alzheimers.org.uk/threads/your-chc-appeals-support-thread.136861/

 

[try again]

I've just started my own thread for my mum.
For me the nursing home kicked off the process by applying for funded nursing care
The checklist they must have submitted has scored her high enough to qualify for a full chc assessment. (Not that it means she will qualify for it 😁)

Have you approached the care home and discussed the subject with them?

Having said that I don't know if the process is different in Wales .

 

[Dirge]

As is mentioned above, CHC is extremely hard to get and everything is weighted against you despite what the National Framework says. Do not be surprised if you are turned down at the at the first attempt, it appears that this is the way the system works and you have to challenge at every step. I am currently on my first appeal against the No decision which seemed to ignore everything that the National Framework guidelines specify. I wish you luck.

 

[Dave63]

Hi @Mary Dolly, below is the link to the CHC National Framework for Wales. As @Louise7 mentioned it's worth getting familiar with how the process is supposed to work so you don't get bamboozled by your local health board who may attempt to delay and obstruct things as you try and navigate the process.

https://www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2022-03/continuing-nhs-healthcare-the-national-framework-for--implementation.pdf