NEWS RELEASE FROM THE
REGISTERED NURSING HOME ASSOCIATION
Issued 1st August 2005
RNHA CALLS FOR JUSTICE IN REVIEW
OF CONTINUING CARE CRITERIA
The Registered Nursing Home Association (RNHA) has called on the Department of Health and Strategic Health Authorities to speed up their review of eligibility criteria for NHS-funded continuing care and to make sure older people receive the help and support they are entitled to.
Responding today to the annual report of the Health Service Ombudsman, who during 2004/05 has investigated over 4,000 complaints and inquiries about the current system, the RNHA said older people across the country remained innocent victims of an unfair postcode lottery.
Commented RNHA chief executive officer Frank Ursell: “Despite a landmark court case a few years ago which determined that older people who need residential nursing care should have all their costs met by the NHS, the government has not grasped the nettle. Whilst it is good that a review is taking place, many older people and their families fear that eligibility criteria may be tightened for financial reasons in order to exclude more of them from the full support they are entitled to. In other words, there is genuine anxiety that the review might end up as a smokescreen for reducing rather than increasing help to vulnerable people.”
He added: “Another down side of reviews of this kind is that they can often be used as a device to delay decisions and duck the real issues. We must hope that the government will be held fully to account by the Health Service Ombudsman if that proves to be the case.”
As well as believing that too many older people are wrongly denied full funding for their continuing care, the RNHA argues that the registered nursing care contribution made by the NHS is set unrealistically low and fails to cover the true cost of providing 24-hour nursing care.
Said Mr Ursell: “In the final analysis, this is really all about the degree of priority accorded to the care of older people in our society. Historically, the signs are not good. Governments of recent years have tended to push older people down to the bottom of the pack. However, we shall continue to campaign alongside organisations representing the interests of older people in order to ensure that they are given a much better deal in the future.”
END
For further information please contact:
Frank Ursell, chief executive officer, RNHA
Tel: 0121-454 2511 or 07785 227000
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