Hancock investigates care fund ‘consultants’
Minister launches inquest into ‘conflict of interest’ of NHS officials advising on how to secure grants
THE Health Secretary will launch an immediate investigation into an “extremely concerning apparent conflict of interest” after The Daily Telegraph exposed NHS officials charging families for advice to secure care funding.
Our investigation revealed that NHS officials are working as private consultants and charging frail patients’ relatives for help securing funding from the state. All the officials boasted of a high success rate, and claimed to have obtained funding for families who had previously been turned down.
Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, said the Government will immediately investigate the “apparent conflict of interest”.
Under national rules, any patient with a significant health problem – such as dementia or Parkinson’s – should have their care and nursing fees paid in full through continuing healthcare (CHC) funding, if the condition is deemed to be the main reason that they need help. If the NHS decides that help is required simply because some- one is frail or elderly, this falls under social care, which is means-tested.
But families and campaigners have complained that the system is unfair and overly complex with increasing numbers being denied the funds – leaving them facing bills of up to £100,000 a year in care costs.
In the past five years, the average number of people approved as eligible for the funding has fallen by nearly 15 per cent – from 69.33 per 50,000 people in 2014-15 to 59.53 in the second quarter of 2019-20.
Families can spend months trying to navigate the complex system to try and obtain funding for their frail relatives.
Some finally succeed in getting the funding only to find it taken away again months later because health officials rule the patient has fewer care needs.
Several relatives of elderly patients told The Daily Telegraph that they lost the funding after their relatives’ condition declined to the point where they were no longer able to get out of bed and so were no longer at risk of falling over.
NHS England has told local commissioners to make £855 million of savings in their CHC budgets by 2020-21, although officials insisted these savings should be made through cutting administrative costs.
Undercover reporters posed as the relatives of an elderly man and secretly recorded meetings with senior managers, who are paid by the NHS to oversee applications for CHC funding. The officials were charging up to £400 a day to provide help to obtain funding.
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 official risked an apparent conflict of interest after offering to secure funding for care services in the area where he worked.
Mr Hancock said he would take immediate action to investigate The Daily Telegraph’s findings. He said: “It’s important that families know the system is fair and working for them, so this apparent conflict of interest is extremely concerning. I thank The Telegraph for highlighting this issue, and we will be investigating it immediately.”