In the last 6 months we have heard stories from people who have had their Continuing Health Care packages changed and replaced with social care support instead. This is often for people with long term, severe illness.
Why are we looking at this issue?
These stories impact on some of the most vulnerable people in our community. We are concerned that funding pressures in the NHS are leading to assessments of people that are leaving people and their carers in a vulnerable position. We are aware of reduced CCG funding in this area, and want to understand the impact that this is having on patients and their carers.
What is the impact of this issue?
The numbers of people in receipt of CHC packages are small, but the impact on their families if packages are changed is often significant. We hope to be able to quantify the numbers of people impacted as we review this issue further.
UPDATE:
If you have a story to tell about Continuing Healthcare packages then please contact info@healthwatchkirklees.co.uk
UPDATE: March 2018
We are due to meet with representatives from the Continuing Healthcare team in April 2018 to explore this issue further, to see how many people this is impacting and to feed back some of the stories that we have heard.