NHS does it again! – Judge rules two disabled people have the Direct Payments they rely on for independence replaced with shoddy and ridiculously expensive agency care over a simple technicality!

I came across a very interesting report in The Independent today (link at the bottom)…

A judge has ruled that two disabled people who have been in receipt of Direct Payments will have this service replaced by inferior, and far more expensive, agency care funded by the NHS. This is all because a change in the law means people can no longer be funded by the NHS and social services, only one or the other, and the NHS cannot legally provided Direct Payments.

It is very rare for me to lose my head…but this time its war!

My family and I spent YEARS, LITERALLY YEARS, fighting to get the Direct Payments I NEED to live independently and it works f***ing great!!

Now however, it looks like, at the time of my next review, they might get taken away and replaced with agency care funded by the NHS.

Why I hear you ask, change something that isn’t broke, far from it in fact?

Well, for no other reason than an arbitrary and ill thought out change in the law of course, why else would they bother?!

I’ll tell you something now, it is beyond me how most of the decisions in the NHS and health and social care sector are made and sometimes it even makes me think:

“You know what – screw the NHS, it’s inefficient, ineffective and insanely expensive…let’s just have nationwide private healthcare instead…at least then the private businesses might compete with each other and give us more value for money!”

Why, in the name of common sense, would you decide, based on an arbitrary point of law, which just happens to be under review, that an arrangement which maintains people’s liberty and quality of life should be thrown away and replaced with one  which does neither of those and is 3 times as expensive!

It makes no sense whatsoever!

Obviously, the point of the judicial system is to enforce the law, but equally, where the law is inadequate, unfair, or even just not cost effective, should judges not call for some sort of review, or at least point out the problems?

I would have thought that even the most heartless and ruthless government would have winced at the prospect of paying 3 times the cost for an inferior service, apparently not!

And we aren’t talking small numbers here; we are talking “MEGA BUCKS”!

It can cost 10s of thousands of pounds to fund a high maintenance Direct Payments package, so think how much a comparable service would cost from an agency!

Think about how much you pay in tax every year, in the case of a lot of people, their yearly tax contributions might not cover a 5^th of the cost of a big Direct Payments package, let alone an agency one!

I don’t care what anyone says, a problem of this nature, even from a purely economic perspective, should be sorted by a fast tracked change in the law, especially as it is widely agreed a change is necessary!

What is even more annoying is there is a perfect, and already legal, work around being championed by those in favour of disability rights, which may even be superior to Direct Payments, but few NHS trusts are supporting it!

The idea is that a third party acts as an agency that the NHS can then pay to administer people’s care, the difference is that this third party offers a service with the same values as Direct Payments. This would mean people could still choose their staff and would even not have to do all the paperwork anymore, because the agency would it…happy days!

Furthermore, there is already a bill before parliament, which is the result of a widely accredited report by Lord Darzi, which would legalise the use of Direct Payments by the NHS!

Unfortunately, assuming the bill is even passed, it is unlikely NHS “personal health budgets” as they are called, will be rolled out nationally before 2012, meaning we may well have to deal with this rubbish situation for at least 3 years.

Overall, I despair at this sorry state of affairs!
(Rhyme not intentional but left in to lighten the mood)

This court case could have been a prime opportunity to expose the shortcomings of health and social care in the UK. Instead, it has served to reinforce the double standards, wastage and incompetence of those in charge!

What makes me even more frustrated is the vast majority of officials involved in this system want to make things better; they are just stopped at every turn by the short-sightedness of those controlling the purse strings!

It’s time this was recognised as a large, yet unnecessary and fixable issue which has the potential to be turned on its head and used as a springboard to improve the lives of a huge number of vulnerable people!

In my view, if they were used correctly, NHS “personal health budgets” could be used to great effect and could not only save a huge amount of money, but also pave the way for new and innovative home treatment of people who would otherwise occupy an extremely expensive and much sought after hospital bed.

I will do everything I can to make sure I don’t lose my Direct Payments and not because I’m on some sort of moral crusade, but as a matter of simple self preservation!   

George.

“Your Personal Health and Social Care Guru”

Link to The Indpendent Report => Click here

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