NHS Continuing Healthcare
NHS continuing healthcare deadline now set
Read more: Clock ticking for families to reclaim
wrongly paid nursing home fees
NHS continuing healthcare
The NHS can arrange and fund a care package called NHS
continuing healthcare. This package can be received by patients who
are in a care or nursing home, in a hospital, or at
their own home.
NHS continuing healthcare is often referred
to as ‘fully funded care’.
What does NHS continuing healthcare mean for the patient?
If the NHS fully funds continuing care in a
care home, the patient does not have to make any contribution to
the cost of that care.
If not NHS funded, the
patient funds much of the care himself; or it is funded by a local
authority social services department, with the patient being
expected to contribute according their means.
A placement in a care
home costs on average between £500.00 and £700.00 per week. The
weekly cost is in-creased if the patient requires Elderly Mentally
Infirmed nursing care.
Eligibility for NHS continuing healthcare
An individual should be entitled to full NHS
funding of his care home placement if his health and nursing care
needs are more than incidental or ancillary to the provision of
accommodation that a local authority is under a duty to provide;
and the nursing needs are not of a type that you would expect a
social services department to be responsible for.
Where the primary need of the
individual is a health need, then the responsibility is that of the
National Health Service.
Therefore, if someone is in a nursing or care
home because of physical or mental health needs they may be paying
fees that should be funded by the NHS.
See our NHS
care eligibility page
How the nursing care cases are funded?
We initially assess all claims by a written
questionnaire. This first assessment is free and confidential and
there is no obligation on you to proceed.
A claim may be funded in a number of
ways. A patient's personal circumstances will be the main factor in
determining how a claim will be funded.
Usually, a claim will be funded in one of the
following ways:
- On a private paying basis
- Legal Expenses Insurance
- Contingency Fee Agreements (CFA) – “no win no fee”
- Trade Union funding
Find out more on nursing care fees:
Back to nursing care