Direct payments will give NHS patients ‘power’ over care
MINISTERS have pledged to “put power in the hands of patients” by directly giving them funds to spend on their healthcare and help at home.
The plans will see a major expansion of controversial schemes that allow patients more autonomy over their treatment but have been criticised for allowing taxpayers’ money to be spent on holidays and football tickets.
Until now, “personal budgets” have been restricted to small numbers of patients. But ministers are today promising to allow up to 350,000 patients the legal right to receive direct payments for their care.
It means regular users of healthcare will be allowed to decide how best funds on them are spent, using allocations from NHS and council budgets. Ministers said focusing care around the needs of individuals would form one of the “key principles of reform” when a green paper on social care was published this summer.
The plans follow promises by Theresa May to set out a long-term funding plan for the NHS, in the year it reaches its 70th anniversary.
Caroline Dinenage, the care minister, said: “These changes will put the power back into the hands of patients and their families. This would reduce pressure on emergency care by joining up health and social care services at a local level.”
The use of the funds at a time when the NHS is under unprecedented pressure is likely to cause controversy. Last night, patients’ groups expressed concern that the schemes were too easily open to abuse. Official figures for last month show that
health service performance against key accident and emergency targets is the worst on record, while waits for GPS are growing.
Advocates of personal budgets say patients with long-term health problems or disabilities are often best placed to decide what care is required, and who provides it. Some research suggests that schemes introduced so far have saved money, with those taking up the budgets making sensible decisions, with some making savings.
It means those with mobility problems could opt for gym membership, instead of physiotherapy, pay for taxis instead of booking patient transport, or pay an assistant to help with daily tasks.
A number of schemes have attracted criticism for authorising treats such as holidays, aromatherapy, Sky sports subscriptions and the hire of pedalos. Decisions on use of the funds have to be authorised by NHS clinical commissioning groups.
Supporters say the right to have a personal budget should be enshrined in law. Such rights are proposed for those with ongoing social care needs, such as the elderly, who also make regular and ongoing use of relevant NHS services, those regularly using mental health services, and those with disabilities that require ongoing healthcare.
Joyce Robins, from Patient Concern, criticised the plans, which are open to public consultation until June. She said: “If funding was plentiful maybe we could afford experiments like this but money is so dreadfully tight that people can’t even get the basics. It seems to me that this is asking for abuse.”