Care home fees for escorting to medical appts

noclaf

My mother lives in a care home (not nursing to be clear). The vast majority of her pensions are used to pay the care costs with LA funding the rest and it leave a small balance each month which just about covers other expenses. So we pay the LA directly each month.
The home have randomly sent an email saying they will start charging an hourly rate for escorting residents to medical appts if family members/next if kin can't take them. 
The whole point of my mother going into care was so that I could leave them to manage that as part of their duty of care as I was struggling for years balancing her care and a full time stressful job.

So on top of the already very high fees for care, can they simply whack this charge on without any consultation? 

Flugelhorn

I don't know - you would have to look at the Ts & Cs about extra fees. knowing a  lot of care homes they are short of staff and it can be difficult to release someone to go to an appointment with a resident and still have enough staff to manage the day 2 day running of the place. Perhaps they feel it is better to pay staff as an extra to go so that the numbers for everyone else are not depleted 

elsien

I would be going back to the local authority and flag this up with them in terms of commissioning. Because if they are part funding her care, presumably they will be picking up the extra.

noclaf

Elsien - yep il raise this with LA...the potentials costs could be quite hefty given the issues with delayed appointments/waiting times, the other challenge is trying to plan around these costs as it's hard to predict when my mum will be asked to attend an appointment. 
I understand the care homes are facing significant challenges but I can see there being a lot of pushback on this one, interested to know how other residents will react....end of the day it may just be a cost we have to swallow up, well the residents anyway. Ultimately it will end up with the LA at least partially funding the costs as my mother's care costs are based on assessment of her savings and income (pensions in her case).

tetrarch

Just to play devil's advocate for a moment.

If you accept that taking residents to medical appointments does incur a cost to the care home as a whole. 

Is it right that families who DO take their relatives to these appointments should subsidise the cost for those who have care home staff perform this task?

Regards

Tet

silvercar

tetrarch said:

Just to play devil's advocate for a moment.

If you accept that taking residents to medical appointments does incur a cost to the care home as a whole. 

Is it right that families who DO take their relatives to these appointments should subsidise the cost for those who have care home staff perform this task?

Regards

Tet

Yes. If it’s part of the provision of the care home services it is all inclusive. If some family members of residents decide to provide an escort that is up to them. If you decided to visit a relative and take them out to lunch, would you expect the resident to be refunded the cost of the care home lunch? Or you cleaned their room, a refund of a cleaning charge?

elsien

I would expect support at medical appointments to be an integral part of the service that is being paid for. Health isn’t an optional add on, a “nice to have.” It’s an essential part of the care being provided.
if the person wants / needs a family member to be there, then that’s beneficial to them. But people who don’t have family willing or able to attend still need support. How can people with dementia or a learning disability, either with memory issues or limited understanding of their care needs and general health, provide the relevant information that the health provider needs? 

People should not be penalised for needing help to have their basic needs met.

tetrarch

Apologies for any upset. I should have answered your question directly.

The ability for the care home to levy any additional charges will depend on the contract that has been signed.

In our case the contract for my late MIL contained a specific clause under "Additional Costs"

"staff escorts to hospital and elsewhere (for which we charge £20 per hour)"

Another observation I'd make (having just re-read it) is that the contract itself was riddled with the word "Exceptional" which seemed to give the care home many, many excuses to change all sorts of things due to myriad circumstances.

Regards

Tet

noclaf

elsien said:

I would be going back to the local authority and flag this up with them in terms of commissioning. Because if they are part funding her care, presumably they will be picking up the extra.

Elsien, just to go back to your point re. raising with the LA.

When my mum initially went into care they performed a financial assessment to determine how much she will contribute to her care costs. Aside from 1 reassessment due to some changes which I flagged up, there is minimal contact between me and LA unless something needs to be raised or she needs reassessment etc.

I guess the question here is how should I frame this to the LA, write a letter stating the care home have advised of this and can it be factored into her fin assessment calculation? The issue I can see is that I cannot accurately predict how much charges my mum will end up paying over the next year or so and the LA can't either so can't see how it can be assessed etc 

Spendless

Hi, when my Nan was in a care home and was self funding as her property had been sold to pay her fees, my Mum had POA and a little bit was allocated as 'pocket money' to Nan. The pocket money just used to pay if Nan wanted her hair doing or sometimes she had a manicure or someone in to do feet (all came in to the care home). I would have thought that paying someone to accompany your Mum to medical appts would come under the same category, the money comes from the amount of 'personal spends' that is allowed per week.  

noclaf

Spendless said:

Hi, when my Nan was in a care home and was self funding as her property had been sold to pay her fees, my Mum had POA and a little bit was allocated as 'pocket money' to Nan. The pocket money just used to pay if Nan wanted her hair doing or sometimes she had a manicure or someone in to do feet (all came in to the care home). I would have thought that paying someone to accompany your Mum to medical appts would come under the same category, the money comes from the amount of 'personal spends' that is allowed per week.  

That's exactly the same for my mum, she has an 'allowance' that's taken into account for her care fees fin assessment, one possible avenue is whether LA will consider re-assessing based on what will be an additional cost etc I will raise with LA and go from there.