My mother had a serious stroke at the end of January this year, losing all mobility in her right side, and with significant speech impairment. After a period in hospital, my father, sister and ! took part in a family meeting, the outcome of which was that she could only be properly cared for in a nursing home, as my father, at 81, was unable to provide the relevant care at home. After a whistle-stop tour of nursing homes (we were given around 5 working days to find one), we made our decision, and a place was offered by the home at a cost of c.£68 per day payable by the social services department of the local council pending assessment of her assets, and her resulting contribution to the costs of her care. This has now been completed, debts to the council paid, and we have been told that the home would bill her directly from now on. It seems that the home now want to charge £92 per day for the same care. This sounds neither logical nor fair.
When her savings reach £23,000, Social Services will begin to pay a proportion of her care fees, and when they get down to £14,000, they will pay the whole amount. I'm sure they won't want to be paying £92, and I'm guessing will only pay £67.
I'm concerned that we/she are being stitched up on this one. Clearly the alternative is to vote with our feet and move her, but that's not so easy when she is totally dependent on the carers, and is building relationships with them. I think it would be very traumatic for her to move to another home.
Does anyone else have experience of "the system", and in particular the charging structure? We know that her money is going to be sucked away anyway until it reaches the magic £14,000, so all it's doing is delaying the inevitable, but the principle of what the home is doing seems to be wrong to me.
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We went through this not too many years ago and resigned ourselves not to feeling bitter over the "system" surrounding care costs... it was the care that was deemed more important.
I know our costs rose after the first month or two as it took that long for the home to assess the specific needs and also there was a complicated calculation related to the degree the care was related to nursing.
Finally it may well be social services has a contract with the home where they do get lower rates.
But as I said in the first paragraph we tried not to focus on costs, it just added too much stress.
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I'm not directly involved with nursing homes in England, but I heard a recent article on Radio 4 where a manager of a nursing home was complaining they were being put in this position because the local authorities refuse to pay enough so self-funders have to pay a bit more to make up the shortfall.
You're not being stitched up, but you are subsidising the residents who are funded through the L.A.
Presumably when your mum falls into the £67/day category she will in turn be subsidised by the self-funders.
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As Lygonos says..
The private clients subsidise the council ones.
Been like that for 20+ years..
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Yes, we currently have mad aunty jean in a care home. Sold her house to put her in there. Hers is 550 quid a week (in a cheap part of the country) Your 90 pounds a day is not expensive and you care home is just doing the norm.
Only certain types of full time medical care get full funding from the local health trust or social services.
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>> Only certain types of full time medical care get full funding from the local health
>> trust or social services.
>>
Yes, we went through the process to assess whether the NHS would fully fund her care. I attended the assessment meeting and I have to say it was very fair.
Sounds like our situation is the norm as you say. I agree, the key thing is to keep chilled and act in her best interests, as in the end all the additional cost will do is just shorten the time until social services start paying again.
Last edited by: Mike H on Thu 17 Oct 13 at 21:47
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>>>Hers is 550 quid a week (in a cheap part of the country)
Yes we paid around £550 in Cambridgeshire and in the expensive home area where the person went eventually it was £800 a week. Doesn't take long to really mount up.
We did get the nursing element paid but that was only about £80 a week reduction.
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£5-600/week is about the norm in Northumberland.
Read the small print of the contract, it's not unusual for the home to carry on charging after the person has left the home even if you clear the room within one or two days. Check the duration.
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The NHS has a duty of care for some who are handicapped by dementia/stroke etc.
Have you had the NHS do an assessment? - Your relative may be entitled to a reduction in costs - some people have the full costs paid by the NHS!
Worth a punt?
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>> The NHS has a duty of care for some who are handicapped by dementia/stroke etc.
>> Have you had the NHS do an assessment? - Your relative may be entitled to
>> a reduction in costs - some people have the full costs paid by the NHS!
>>
>> Worth a punt?
>>
Thanks FB, but see my earlier post, we've been there already. Just a nursing contribution of £108 a week. I wasn't so concerned about the real cost, just the extra we were expected to pay when we became self-funding.
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>>we made our decision, and a place was offered by the home at a cost of
>> c.£68 per day
>> It seems that the home now want to charge £92 per day for the same care. This sounds neither logical nor fair.
From what I know of the charges for nursing care in my own area, £92 a day would be very acceptable.
And, I live well north of Watford.
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The whole system is wrong.
I fail to see why 'fag ash Lil' can turn up when she needs a nursing home and get the whole lot for free, having drunk/smoked and had a good time all her life..when in the next room is Mrs Careful who's been shrewd all her life and put her/her husband's cash flow into to paying a mortgage and keeping something for a rainy day...and had to do without a lot of things....and she has to pay out of her savings???
Doesn't exactly encourage prudence does it?
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No, but life is for living after all:)
Pat
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that prudence is a boring cow. you don't want to encourage her.
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Care home fees - does this sound reasonable? - Fenlander
