Telford and Wrekin Care Cost Gap

The Council says that people, typically older people with complex health needs, are losing out because the group is spending less than half the national average on the care.

Despite the same national criteria being applied by Clinical Commissioning Group's to allocate this funding, figures show that, in the Shropshire Council area, more than four times as many people receive funding for continuing health care.

The council say the inequality is further compounded because health needs in Telford and Wrekin are more pressing with the population in the borough having poorer health for many conditions.

The Council wants the Clinical Commissioning Group to stop their approach which is forcing many people, typically older people with complex health needs who need care at home or in a care home, to self-fund this care costing them and their families around as much as £30,000 a year.

In addition it is passing around £8.5 million of costs on to the Council’s adult social care budget. This budget accounts for 36 per cent of the Council’s total spend and which must be cut back as the Council seeks to make a further £23m of cuts by 2016, pushing this budget to breaking point.

NHS Continuing Health Care is a package of care (outside hospital) which is arranged and funded by the NHS where the individual has been found to have a “primary health need”. NHS Continuing Health Care may be provided in a range of settings, including in a care home or at a person’s own home.

The local Clinical Commissioning Group, however, has tightened their criteria and the Council has been forced to pick up the bill for cases that they would have previously funded. This approach has added around £8.5m of costs at a time when the Council is already facing financial pressures.

Underfunding has knock-on effects across the NHS, as without the money to support ongoing health needs it leads to bed blocking in local hospitals.

This is not a problem everywhere but, Telford and Wrekin has the lowest level of Continuing Health Care funding by a Clinical Commissioning Group anywhere in the Midlands.

Without this additional funding to cover the shortfall, in addition to continued cuts at the Council, it may result in reductions in the care that can be supported and the need for more families to fund their own Continuing Health Care.

All the Council’s political groups are backing the call for more money for Continuing Health Care and demanding to know why there are such discrepancies between the funding for Telford and Wrekin and for Shropshire.

Telford & Wrekin Council leader, Kuldip Sahota, said: “These figures show just how unfair the current funding for Continuing Health Care is for the people of our borough.

“We already have some of the worst health inequalities in the region and this shows just how far those inequalities stretch.

“The lack of funding for is an additional Health Tax for older people in Telford and Wrekin and it has to stop.”

Councillor Andrew Eade, leader of the Conservative group, said: “We believe there is a strong case for a greater level of funding to be provided by the Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group to fund Continuing Health Care in the borough.

“At the moment a combination of the Council and taxpayers are being left to foot the bill.

“We demand an explanation from the Clinical Commissioning Group why there is a discrepancy and how they are applying the national criteria.”

Leader of the Liberal Democrats group, Councillor Bill Tomlinson, said: “This is an issue which can affect everyone in the borough.

“The Clinical Commissioning Group are supposed to champion and represent the best health needs of people here yet on this issue they seem to be putting their own financial interests first and the health of older people way down their list.”