Nhs continuing healthcare

You must be so relieved SVFM and congratulations on persevering with this.

In my case I had managed to get my father into a hospice, and he then transferred to a nursing home. He got CHC, and I never had to do anything - was just told he'd be getting it and no nursing home fees would be payable.

Perhaps this was a case where the system worked as it should, or maybe if someone's already in a hospice, CHC is pretty much automatic if they transfer somewhere else?

Wow! I so wish I had seen this thread earlier. My mum was in hospital very poorly and I heard about CHC and asked them to assess her. I made sure I was there and the nurse and I went right through and she got several As and Bs, mainly because I upped what the nurse said but we were in agreement.

A few days later she appeared with the document and said she had given it more thought and altered it as she felt Mum was now more able. It was therefore downgraded and she said much as she would like to, Mum wasn't eligible.

I wish I had had the confidence to argue or stand my ground.

Finances/assets have no effect on CHC funding.
If she's palliative, I would expect them to use the fast track process.

Simple breakdown of the process:
https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/help/support/terminal-illness/care-needs/continuing-healthcare-assessment

I have/had 2 relatives in a nursing home (one has now passed away). At the end of 2017 I asked why neither had ever been assessed for CHC. Each was awarded free nursing care when they became resident in a nursing home, but has never been assessed since, despite continuing decling health.

Social services agreed and conducted the assessment for each relative. Despite scoring the top level on many of the categories, it was not awarded

I was told it was because they didn't score in enough categories at the highest level. Some categories were not applicable to them and so they could never score in these categories, thus downgrading what the overall score.

I then involved a solicitor to launch an appeal for both relatives. We have just had a Local resolution meeting with the local health authority, and are awaiting the outcome. However, we were warned that if a person has predictable decline in their health e,g through dementia, that is not considered complex and therefore they won't qualify. I did say to them "How ill does a person have to be?"!!

This has been going on for over a year and in that time one relative has passed away. I'm not holding my breath, since it seems to be very difficult to obtain this funding. Health authorities will use every excuse not to have to pay out, even when there are primary health needs.