Continuing Health Care - Preparing to fight PCT's decision

cohentb

The IRP has sent us a acknowgement to fill in and I quote:

"I confirm that I have received the Independent Review Outcome Letter and Report"

"I accept the findings and will be taking no further action"

OR

"I do not accept the findings"

Each of these options has a tickbox next to it. I would welcome advice on what to put as I do not trust anything from the NHS. I am pleased that we have an additional "high needs" but intend to begin the whole process again. I am thinking of just ticking the confirmation of the letter and report box and nothing else as I do not want to sign something that may compromise further action.

Any advice welcomed on what to do ?

Keep on going. Tick the box to say you disagree only.

Appeal to the Ombudsman if this is the next step. Be warned that if they accept the case it could take 6 to 12 months to investigate. Collect your evidence and state why you disagree. There is a checklist of how the pct/sha should have proceeded.

In the meantime ask for a new assessment and use the IRP review and then highlight how your fil has detoriorated since the dates covered by the IRP. Good luck. Don't give up.

monkeyspanner

A guide to the assessment process in England can be found here.
http://www.counselandcare.org.uk/assets/library/documents/40_Continuing_healthcare_-_understanding_the_assessment_process_2009.pdf

greenflamingo_2

Just received a letter from local Council concerning my fil's nursing home deferred payments scheme:

"Could you please complete and return the enclosed Property Details Information Form within 2 weeks of the date of this letter. This will be useful in understanding the current situation.

Failure to do so could result in the decision of the Local Authority to defer the charges, being reversed, therefore the accrued debt would then become due and payable immediately"

The form basically is asking for a valuation of the property and whether it is for sale or not. I had already sent in this form so can only assume they have either mislaid it or are trying heavy arm tactics to get us to try and sell the property.

Any advice pse as to how to respond?

malid

BBC Breakfast has an item on CHC this morning - highlighted 3 cases that have had their payments repaid. Point was made that CHC decisions are made by clinicians not 'men in suits' and therefore they do not consider the cost to the NHS. I'm not sure if this is correct in all cases.

May be an idea to bombard the programme - phone and online - highlighting issues you all have.

Good luck to all of you who are still fighting!

greenflamingo_2

Thanks Malid - I have sent an email giving them details of our forum and also freenursingcare website along with a brief of our own personal circumstances.

We need a crusader with power to highlight this and stop it happening

Please everyone get on your email and send them your details:

bbcbreakfast@bbc.co.uk

greenflamingo_2

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/8198159.stm

Family wins fight for PCT funding

monkeyspanner

The Welsh Assembly has set a deadline of 4 December 2009 for making backdated claims for continuing healthcare claims relating to periods of care prior to April 2003.

Also more articles on successful claims see below:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1207796/Health-chiefs-caving-care-home-costs.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1207384/Council-ordered-pay-100-000-family-Alzheimers-sufferer-refusing-pay-care-home-fees.html

cohentb

" CHC the NHS's best kept secret." Also discussion on Radio 4 You and Yours on 19th August (from30 mins in.). Planning to do more over next few weeks and are requesting listeners stories. Interview with Pamela Coughlan next Wednesday. Info available on listen again.

Lets keep up the pressure.

CHCscandal

Details of a press release today from Robin Lovelock, who pioneered a website dedicated to the memories of his parents, alerting the public about Continuing HealthCare rights.

Press Release: Ten Years after Pamela Coughlan's Victory and yet the Fraud Continues.
from Robin Lovelock, editor of www. NHSCare.info on 21st August 2009. Robin @nhscare.info

22 Armitage Court, Sunninghill, Ascot, Berks. SL5 9TA. Tel 01344 620775.

"JUSTICE OVER CARE HOME COSTS" is the headline on the front page of the Daily Mail, last Wednesday 19th August 2009. This highlights the recent victory of three families who won back over £350,000 from the NHS, for patients with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. So far about £8million has been recovered for a further 750 families - that's an average of over £10,000 per family.

Pam Coughlan will be interviewed on BBC Radio 4's "You and Yours" broadcast next Wednesday 26th August.

At the same time, Robin Lovelock will explain "Coughlan", play the three minute Pam Coughlan video, and answer questions. This is at the "Golden Age" event at the new Ascot Racecourse Pavilion.

Sadly, few people know the simple facts and how to claim or recover what is rightfully theirs. 750 families are a small proportion of the hundreds of thousands of families who have been duped into paying Care Home fees, when the Law demands that the NHS should pay. The Government and Department of Health have spent the last ten years, since Pam's historic victory in the Appeal Court, "ducking and weaving". The Ombudsman, The Royal College of Nursing, and The Law Society have made the facts clear: "Social Care" is part of Health Care, and the Law demands that anyone with care needs the same or greater than Pam Coughlan, must be 100% funded by the NHS - including all costs of the Care Home.

Over ten years ago, in July 1999, Pamela Coughlan won her case in the Appeal Court, the highest court in the land, against this New Labour Government. The case made the law very clear: anyone with health care needs the same or greater than Pam, is entitled to being fully funded by the NHS. i.e. "Continuing Care". This includes all costs, including those of accommodation, if the patient is in a Hospital, Hospice or Care Home.. It also applies if the patient is being cared for in their own home.

Since then the Government have followed a strategy, conceived by the earlier Thatcher Government, to evade the legal obligation of the NHS to pay for long term care. e.g. the result of stroke, road accident, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, or a host of other health conditions. The NHS have closed down long term stay beds, typically occupied by geriatric patients, and used Social Services to approach the family, misinform them, and get them to pay for the Care Home, after means testing. Those that do not have sufficient savings, or a house to sell, become the burden of local Council Tax payers.

In 2002 Robin set up the web site www. NHSCare.info after he received expert legal "Coughlan" advice related to his late mother. Over the years this web site, and the "Coughlan Campaign" group have provided expert advice to hundreds if not thousands of families, and even Law Firms who now offer "no win no fee" services to claim back Care Home costs from the NHS. The group include Steve Squires and David Gooch, two of the "winners" in the first Ombudsman's Report, published in early 2003.

The group includes legal experts and Pam Coughlan herself, together with a network of families, some of whom have already won their case, such as Stephen Johnson. A linked message board provides a Forum and support for claiments throughout the country.
The Coughlan Campaign group, and www. NHSCare. info have been the primary source of information whenever there is interest in the subject of "Coughlan" and long term care.

Despite criticism by the Ombudsman, the Royal College of Nursing, and the Law Society, the Government and NHS continue to evade paying for the majority of patients in Care Homes. They employed delaying tactics of consultation on a new "National Framework".

These new rules were criticised by the Law Society, since they did not include a simple "Coughlan Test". i.e. comparison of the patient's care needs with those of Ms Coughlan. Instead, these deliberately vague rules were put in place in late 2008, and - of course - result in the majority of patients being denied Continuing Care - to which they are entitled under the Law (the 1946 National Health Service Act).

monkeyspanner

Another success story here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/8198159.stm