Continuing Healthcare CHC funding at risk in Scotland

monkeyspanner

Continuing Healthcare CHC funding at risk in Scotland A review of NHS funded care home costs in Scotland has recommended that no funding should be provided in non-NHS facilities.
Article here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-27261095

scotsbob

The report states "Unless doctors rule that the patient should be in a hospital, the patient and their family will be liable for the costs."

That seems to me to be quite reasonable.

Tosca3

What about people with Dementia, do you want hospital wards clogged up with long stay patients anymore than they are now ?

monkeyspanner

The implentation of NHS continuing healthcare funding was due to a high court ruling that where the patients needs were primarily health related that care costs were the responsibility of the NHS.

Initially this funding was handled by the local NHS authorities in the form of PCTs and health boards. As all these local authorities implemented differing systems this lead to a postcode lottery of service provision. By the time anything was done about the situation responsibility for NHS services had been devolved to Wales Scotland and NI. NHS in England implemented a National framework and decision support tool to try to eliminate variation of service provision across England. The devolved NHS in the other "countries" implemented different approaches.

At present and until Scotland has full independance this is unjust as at present all taxes are paid to central government.

From a purely practical position the care of elderly patients is not handled well in general by the NHS as can be seen by the past and continuing scandals in elder care in NHS hospitals. We are constanly hearing that the problems in hospital are being caused by elderly and infirm patients "bed blocking". This is due to the provision of community and residential care being inadequate and the management of patient discharge being in many cases chaotiic. There is little assistance or information provided for families and they are often unaware of CHC funding or told that it will not be awarded so it is not worth trying. It is indeed not straightforward but in England there is a statutory duty for the NHS to provide this funding where appropriate and hospitals are responsible for arrranging the appropriate assessments when a patient is being discharged and the patient and/or their relatives should be kept informed.

I am unsure on what legal basis the change in Scotland can be implemented.

scotsbob

What is this nonsense about "devolved" NHS in Scotland??

The NHS in England has never, not for one single day since it's existence, been a UK wide organisation.

NHS Scotland has been a completely separate entity since 1947. NHS Scotland was formed out of the free health care offered in Scotland since 1919.

Read here the act of Parliament passed in England to form the English NHS. No mention of Scotland is there?

http://wingsoverscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/nhsact.jpg


Spending on NHS Scotland is determined solely by the Scottish Government, which allocates resources to it from its budget as it sees fit, with no input from Westminster