NHS workers charge for advice on securing dementia care cash
NHS officials are working as private consultants and charging frail pensioners’ relatives for help to secure care funding from the state, a Daily Telegraph investigation has found.
The senior managers, who are paid by the health service to oversee applications for the funding, are offering assistance to the vulnerable in obtaining such grants for up to £400 a day.
One health official said that after using her private services, a family had been awarded an NHS grant worth “thousands and thousands and thousands, like two years’ worth of nursing home fees”.
Another was running the risk of an apparent conflict of interest, offering to secure funding for services in the area where he worked.
Under national rules, a patient with a significant health problem – such as dementia or Parkinson’s – should have their care and nursing fees paid in full, if the condition is deemed to be the main reason they need help. But if the
‘I am appalled that vulnerable people and their families are being taken advantage of’
NHS decides that help is required simply because someone is frail or elderly, this falls under social care, which is means-tested.
But families and campaigners say the system is unfair – as well as overly complex – with increasing numbers being denied the funds, leaving them facing bills of up to £100,000 a year.
In the past five years, average eligibility for the funding has fallen by nearly 15 per cent – from 69.33 for every 50,000 people in 2014-15 to 59.53 in the second quarter of 2019-20.
Undercover reporters – posing as relatives of a man with dementia – secretly recorded meetings with three NHS officials who offered to help them obtain funding for care. All the officials claimed to have a high success rate in securing funds under the continuing healthcare (CHC) scheme.
Last night, Andrea Jenkyns MP, a former member of the Health and Social Care Committee, said she would contact Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, after learning of The Telegraph’s findings.
She said: “I hope the NHS trusts involved will investigate and disclose immediately what has actually gone on, then act swiftly on any wrongdoing. I am appalled that vulnerable people and their families are being taken advantage of by people who are remunerated well to serve their best interests.”
Undercover reporters met several
NHS officials who said they worked with families as private consultants to secure CHC funding.
Farouq Ogunseye, who is a project lead for Herefordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), told an undercover reporter who responded to an advert on Facebook that he charged £300-a-day. Mr Ogunseye said he was able to secure funding for about 40 per cent of the cases he worked on, and he was handling up to “10 or 11 a month”.
A second consultant, Dean Aldridge, who works for Waltham Forest CCG overseeing quality control on its CHC funding, charges up to £400 a day to attend meetings with families when their CHC application is being reviewed. He said that in about a third of the cases he handled he was able to overturn rejections for funding.
A third consultant overseeing CHC applications for two CCGS in the north of England, charges £300 to assess the needs of the person in the care home and a further £200 to attend meetings.
When confronted, Mr Ogunseye insisted he would not have carried out any work for the undercover reporters’ “relative” due to the conflict of interest. He said that his claim to have handled up to 11 private clients a month was “incorrect” and that, despite advertising his services, he had never actually done any such work, although he hoped to in the future.
He said he only worked for the CCGS as a contractor, not an employee, and when he met the reporters in August, he had expected to be leaving the job.
A spokesman for Herefordshire and Worcestershire CCGS, where Mr Ogunseye worked, said that before being alerted by The Telegraph the CCG had been “unaware that one of their continuing healthcare contractors is allegedly also offering paid consultancy work to local families. Appropriate action has since been taken”.
Mr Ogunseye said that the CCG had suspended his contract pending an investigation.
Mr Aldridge said he had “never billed, invoiced or received payment from anyone for the advice I have given”.
He added that he had no involvement in whether CHC was awarded and said he had no conflict of interest. “My objective, when talking to families or working in my contractor role in the NHS, is to ensure that individuals are on the correct funding pathway based on their care needs and that the process is followed correctly, in accordance with the national framework”.
A spokesman for NHS Waltham Forest said: “The CCG is currently looking into the matter. It would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.”