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NEWS RELEASE FROM THE
REGISTERED NURSING HOME ASSOCIATION
Issued 27th September 2001
ATTACK ON GOVERNMENT'S 'CHEAP-SKATE' APPROACH TO FREE NURSING CARE
The Government's introduction of free nursing care for patients in nursing homes, which starts next Monday (1st October) in England, risks turning into a 'cheap-skate, bureaucratic nightmare', according to the Registered Nursing Home Association (RNHA).
The association, which supports the principle of free nursing care for all, warned today that the fine details of the scheme - released only yesterday by the Government - paint a dismal picture of a system designed to cut costs and pile up as many administrative obstacles as possible in the way of people seeking State help to pay for their care.
The fact that no-one will be entitled to NHS funding unless they spend more than six weeks in a nursing home will deny thousands the financial aid they might have expected to get from all the spin which the Government put on its pre-election commitment to free nursing care, claims the RNHA.
The association is especially critical of what it calls the 'penny pinching attitude' that lies behind the rule that nursing home patients who go into hospital for even just a day or two will have the NHS funding for their nursing home place stopped until their return to the home.
This and other bureaucratic regulations add insult to injury, the RNHA claims, because they come on top of what is an unrealistically low amount allocated to cover the 'free' nursing care of patients in nursing homes. For the average patient, the NHS contribution to care will amount to only £10 a day and for some it will work out at as little as £5 a day.
Describing the new scheme as 'extremely disappointing and well below people's expectations' the association has criticised the Government for rushing its introduction. "It would have been better to get things right," said RNHA chief executive officer Frank Ursell, "before launching the scheme. As it is, the official circular to health authorities and local councils has only just been published - less than a week before the scheme is due to come into operation. Nor has there been much time or opportunity since the relevant legislation was passed at the end of the last Parliament for people to scrutinise the actions the Government is taking to implement it."
He added: "Primary care trusts throughout the country will have to run the scheme, but they don't even exist yet in most areas and will not come into being until next April. Wouldn't it have been more sensible to wait until then?"
The RNHA is also unhappy about what it sees as the Government's very narrow interpretation of nursing care. Said Mr Ursell: "Again, it looks as though there is a conscious attempt to exclude as much as possible in order to keep the NHS payments to an absolute minimum. This is not in keeping with the spirit of the recommendations of the Government's Royal Commission on the funding of long-term care for the elderly. We have ended up with a scheme that is under-funded and complex to administer. You could say that we have the worst of all possible worlds and that promises made by the Government are promises which have not been kept."
The RNHA's criticism of the 'free nursing care' scheme is echoed by other organisations, including many directly representing older people.
END
For further information please contact: Frank Ursell, Chief Executive Officer, RNHA (Tel: 0121-454 2511 or mobile 07785 227000 (mobile)
Note to editors:
1. Guidance to health authorities and local authorities on free nursing care in nursing homes was issued to health authorities and local authorities in the form of a circular (HSC 2001/17: LAC (2001)26 on 25th September 2001. It is applicable in England.
2. From 1st October 2001, self-funding patients in nursing homes (around 43,000 in total) will become entitled to free nursing care. From 1st April 2003, patients whose nursing home costs are otherwise met by local authority social services departments will also become entitled to an NHS contribution to cover the 'nursing care' element of their care.
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