§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what steps he is taking to ensure that health authorities comply with guidance issued in booklet 252535 that a written care plan is to be given to patients or the family before they move out of an NHS hospital to a nursing home; [87543]
(2) what steps he is taking to ensure, that strategic health authorities should determine whether there were patients who were wrongly refused funding for continuing care and make the necessary arrangements for reimbursing the costs they incurred unnecessarily and that health trusts reimburse self-funders and social services for costs incurred unnecessarily by social services clients and self-funding care home residents; [87546]
(3) if he will revise the paragraph, continuing NHS Health Care, in booklet 25253 to take account of R (Coughlan) v. N & E Devon HA CA July, 1999 and the Health Ombudsman's report E.208/99–00; [87541]
(4) what steps he is taking to ensure that health authorities and primary care trusts comply with guidance issued in the circular of 25 September HSC 2001/17: LAC (2001)26, page 31; [87542]
1043W(5) what steps he is taking to ensure that health authorities and primary care trusts follow the Health Ombudsman's recommendations in her report E.208/99–00, that the new authority should review the eligibility criteria for funding continuing care to ensure that they are in line with the Coughlan judgment and other relevant guidance; [87544]
(6) what steps he is taking to ensure that health authorities and primary care trusts follow the Health Ombudsman's recommendations in her report E.208/99–00 that the strategic health authorities should determine whether there were any patients who were wrongly refused funding for continuing care and make the necessary arrangements for reimbursing the costs they incurred unnecessarily; [87545]
(7) what steps he is taking to ensure that health authorities and primary care trusts follow the health ombudsman's recommendations in her report E.208/99–00, that assessments of eligibility should include why the patient is considered to meet, or not to meet, all the criteria. [87540]
§ Jacqui Smith[holding answers 17 December 2002]: The Ombudsman's report referred to has not been published. It is therefore not possible to comment on the contents.
However, health authorities and subsequently strategic health authorities (StHAs) have reviewed their local criteria in line with the judgement in North and East Devon Health Authority ex parte Coughlan. The chief executive wrote to national health service chief executives about NHS continuing care over the summer. In the light of an earlier Ombudsman's case where an individual had been denied funding, he reminded them of the need to ensure that previous eligibility criteria did not deny patients NHS funded care to which they were entitled. In that case, the Ombudsman recommended that the eligibility criteria that had been in operation by the authority since April 1996 should be reviewed and that reimbursement of costs should be made to any patients found to have been refused funding incorrectly. StHAs have been asked to consider whether criteria in their area were at similar fault and whether other patients were also denied NHS funding of their care. The Department will be monitoring this as part of the process of reviewing StHA's criteria.
The Department does not consider there is any need to amend the wording of Appendix 6 of HSC 2001/17: LAC (2001) 26.
The leaflet, "NHS Funded Nursing Care—What it Means for You", is a guide to people living in or going into a care home providing nursing care, their families and carers. It is not statutory guidance. Separate guidance on the single assessment process asked the NHS and councils to carry out a joint, comprehensive old age assessment when individuals enter care homes or receive other intensive packages of care as part of continuing care, intermediate care or NHS funded nursing care. Local implementation teams for the national service framework for older people, covering all primary care trusts and councils, are required to oversee implementation of this guidance by April 2004.