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NHS funding for long term care: follow up report

In February 2003 the Health Service Ombudsman published a report ,"NHS funding for long term care of older and disabled people" which found evidence to suggest officials are wrongly making people meet the costs of nursing home care. Thousands of elderly and disabled people were eligible to claim compensation because they have been wrongly charged for long term care.

This new follow up report is based on the evidence gathered from almost 4,000 complaints received since the publication of the original report.

The report looks forward in making suggestions for avoiding similar incorrect assessments in future and recommends that the Department of Health needs to lead further work in six key areas to improve the national framework for continuing care. These recommendations are:

• Establish clear, national, minimum eligibility criteria which are understandable to health professionals and patients and carers alike;
• Develope a set of accredited assessment tools and good practice guidance to support the criteria;
• Support training and development to expand local capacity and ensure that new continuing care cases are assessed and decided properly and promptly;
• Clarify standards for record keeping and documentation both by health care providers and those involved in the review process;
• Seek assurance that the retrospective reviews have covered all those who might be affected; and
• Monitor the situation in relation to retrospective reviews and use the lessons learned to inform the handling of continuing care assessments in the future.

More information

• back to policy documents page
• nhs funding for long term care of older and disabled people - information about and link to original report
• nhs funding for long term care: follow up report

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