Costs only partly met due to mix-up

People eligible for full NHS funding for their care are having only
their nursing costs met because of confusion over different funding
systems, MPs were told last week.

The parliamentary health select committee was told many people were
incorrectly denied fully-funded NHS continuing care because they
had already been given the top band of registered nursing care
contribution worth just £125 a week.

Although continuing care applies to anyone with a primary health
need and the contribution to people whose nursing care needs are
incidental to their personal care requirements, guidance for the
two systems is practically indistinguishable.

Age Concern care finance policy adviser Pauline Thompson told MPs:
“If you look at the criteria for the highest band you’ve got to
have complex needs and therapeutic interventions. How can you
[then] not be described as having a primary health need?”

Thompson added that people were being wrongly deemed ineligible for
continuing care because they were not in a nursing home.

She said: “The guidance says you can get [continuing care] in any
setting. I would suspect that people living in residential homes
and people at home are missing out.”