NHS Continuing Healthcare Award Cuts – What Steps Can Professional Deputies Take?
We continue to overturn negative funding decisions despite NHS England quarterly statistics showing that the NHS is recognising fewer people as having a primary healthcare need.
Retaining valuable NHS CHC awards after establishing your client’s eligibility often involves challenging negative or arbitrary funding decisions made by the NHS CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group). NHS England has told CCGs to make £855 million of savings on CHC and NHS Funded Nursing Care by 2020-21. We believe that alongside breaches of the National Framework, subjective assessments and postcode lotteries, this directive is leading to unfair decisions.
Statistics show approximately 1 in 6 people are losing their established NHS Continuing Healthcare (NHS CHC) funded package. In the last quarter of 2017/18, only 54,411 adults across England were found to be eligible for NHS CHC. Almost one third of these were adults eligible under the Fast Track, many of whom were at their end of life care stage. In the same quarter, 5,790 people had their “standard” (non-Fast Track) NHS CHC funding withdrawn.
We see clients with longstanding NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) awards having their NHS CHC funding withdrawn on review, despite no obvious change of circumstance. Also, clients with complex and extensive healthcare needs are being wrongly assessed as requiring ‘routine’ social care packages. Even where clients have succeeded in winning their NHS CHC funding battle, professional advisers are finding that the NHS CHC package offered is inadequate, particularly the care at home packages.
Our Community Care Law team know that challenging NHS funding decisions is vital and well worth fighting for. To help Professional Deputies and Attorneys achieve a fair outcome for their clients, we have prepared a set of Top Tips for Professional Deputies On How To Retain Your Clients’ NHS CHC Awards.
Despite the worrying trend of CCG cuts to healthcare packages, we support Professional Deputies and their clients in successfully challenging NHS CHC decisions. In the past two months, our Community Care Law team has helped clients obtain many positive outcomes, including:
- Securing a fully funded care at home package for a 38-year-old man with complex needs, who hadn’t previously been assessed for NHS CHC
- Achieving a 3-year reimbursement of the full cost of care at home, £270,000, including interest, after an NHS CHC appeal
- Advising on tactics for retaining clients’ existing NHS CHC awards
- Identifying cases where alternatives to NHS CHC funding should be explored
- Winning appeals on current and retrospective cases, including reclaiming £156,000 in lost care fees.
The most vulnerable in our society are the people who cannot afford cuts to their care. We know that securing the best care packages possible makes a huge difference not only to our clients, but also to their families.
We help Professional Deputies identify those cases where appealing NHS CHC funding decisions is likely to be successful, including cases where clients have personal injury settlements. Our team of Health and Social Care lawyers will help you or your clients challenge negative NHS CHC decisions to achieve the best possible outcomes. Contact us today on 01273 609911, or email deputyservices@ms-solicitors.co.uk.
