Do you have a primary health need? If so, you could receive free funding for care.
These questions could determine whether you qualify for free funding for care. Do you or a relative receive social care, either in a residential setting or at home, because of a primary health need? Perhaps you are living with Parkinson’s, or cancer, or MS? Or perhaps your relative suffers from Alzheimer’s or Picks Disease, or another of the many brain-attacking illnesses so often written off simply as “dementia”.
If so, we have a question: why are you paying for care? If you have a primary health need, you shouldn’t be paying a penny, savings or no savings. The NHS should be meeting all your care needs for free out of NHS Continuing Healthcare funding. This means free funding for care.
What is a primary health need?
The term “primary health need” has no legal definition. This causes many problems in assessing eligibility for NHS Continuing Healthcare. After all, most adults who require a package of health and social care support do so for a health-related reason, such as illness or disability. However, they don’t all qualify for NHS Continuing Healthcare. It is the level and type of care needs themselves that determine whether they have a primary health need.
So are you or your relative eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare?
Here are some questions we want to ask you. Depending on the answers, it may pay to contact us for a free and independent assessment of your case.
What level of care and support do you require?
Is the level of care so great that it would not be appropriate to regard it as being part of ‘the package of care’ a local authority would normally provide? Local authority care can include some nursing services. The question is whether these services are more than “merely incidental or ancillary” to the provision of the accommodation which a local authority is under a duty to provide, or should be expected to provide, as part of its social care responsibilities. It is a complicated but nevertheless vital distinction. For further explanation see our factsheet here.
What is the nature of your needs?
The CCG should look at your physical, mental health or psychological needs and the overall impact of those needs. This will help determine the type of caring interventions that are necessary to manage them successfully.
How intense are the needs?
This relates to the extent (quantity) and severity (degree) of the needs and the support that is necessary to meet them, including the need for continuity of care.
How complex are the needs?
This is concerned with how the needs present and interact with each other. The more complex this picture, the greater the care that is necessary to manage care successfully.
How unpredictable are the needs?
This describes the degree to which needs fluctuate – usually because of an unstable or deteriorating condition – and thereby create greater challenges in managing them. It also relates to the level of risk to an individual if carers do not meet their needs in an adequate and timely way.
To find out more, read our factsheet “What is a primary health need for the purposes of NHS Continuing Healthcare?”
But please bear in mind this is for general information only. If you need specific advice on your own unique case, fill out our initial questionnaire or pick up the phone and we will be happy to help.