NEWS RELEASE FROM
THE REGISTERED NURSING HOME ASSOCIATION
Issued 19th March 2007
„TOO LITTLE TOO LATE‟ VERDICT ON
NHS CONTRIBUTION TO CARE HOME PATIENTS‟
NURSING COSTS
Thousands of nursing home patients across the country have been let down yet again
by the government, despite its election pledge to meet the cost of the care provided to
them by registered nurses.
Responding to news that those patients currently receiving the lowest level of NHS
financial support towards their care home nursing costs – just £40 per week – will get
no increase whatever in the year ahead, the Registered Nursing Home Association
(RNHA) claimed it was yet another sign of the „rip off Britain‟ syndrome at work.
Said RNHA chief executive officer Frank Ursell: “Whichever way you look at it,
these patients will suffer a real terms cut in the level of financial help they receive
from the government to cover their nursing costs.
“Not only are these patients already getting a pretty raw deal by being given a paltry
sum towards their actual care costs, but they are now being expected to manage with
even less.”
The RNHA is also challenging what it calls the „grossly disappointing‟ increases
being offered to other nursing home patients classified as having medium or high
level nursing needs, as well as the extremely late notification of the changes which
have come too late to enable nursing homes to adjust their fees by the new financial
year in April without infringing government regulations.
With the current £83 per week medium rate going up to just £87 from April, and the
£133 per week top rate rising to only £139, the RNHA argues that nursing homes will
be even further stretched in their ability to deliver the services that patients have a
right to expect.
Said Mr Ursell: “Ever since the government introduced these payments, which are
supposed to cover the full cost of patients‟ nursing in care homes, we have told health
ministers that the amounts in question are inadequate. Now the problem is getting
worse, with nurse staffing costs rising faster than the government payments that are
designed to meet those costs.
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“On the one hand, the government has put in place a tough regulatory regime with
some 250 individual standards for care homes to meet. On the other hand, the
government is eroding the value of the resources intended to help care homes to
achieve those standards. Government policies are self-contradictory.”
He added: “Insult is being added to injury by the timing of the announcement about
changes in the NHS contribution. Under government regulations, we are required to
give at least four weeks‟ notice of any increase in the fees we charge our patients.
“Yet the news about the increases – small though they are – in the NHS contribution
towards nursing costs has come too late to enable us to introduce the new charges
from 1st April unless we break the regulations. Was this just incompetence or was it
deliberate? Whichever it was, the consequence is the same.”
The RNHA, which has been pressing the Department of Health for weeks to publish
details of the revised NHS contributions, is also disappointed at the length of time the
Department is taking to decide, following a public consultation that finished last
September, whether or not to combine all three bands of payment into one flat rate
payable to all nursing home patients.
Whilst in its formal response last year the RNHA had supported the principle of
consolidation of three different levels of payment into one, the association also asked
the Department of Health to explain how its suggested figure of £97 per week for all
nursing home patients had been calculated.
“We have never received an explanation,” said Mr Ursell. “We are also still waiting
for the Department to make up its mind and to respond to a consultation that finished
nearly six months ago. The decision-making machinery in Whitehall clearly moves at
its own pace, whatever the needs of the rest of the country.”
END
Notes to editors:
1. Nursing home patients in England who do not qualify for the whole of their care
costs to be met by the NHS are nevertheless entitled to a „registered nursing care
contribution‟ from their local primary care trust towards the nursing element of their
care costs. This applies whether they are otherwise funding the whole of their care
from their own resources (about one third of patients) or whether they are receiving
financial help from their council‟s social services department.
2. The government currently sets three levels of payment (low, medium and high).
Which level is paid in individual cases depends on an assessment of the patient‟s
needs that is carried out by a nurse employed by the primary care trust concerned.
For further information and comment, please contact:
Frank Ursell, chief executive officer, Registered Nursing Home Association
Tel: 0121-451 1088 or 07785 227000