Continuing Care: Finance

(asked on 1st July 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of applications for NHS Continuing Healthcare funding in England were accepted (1) within less than one month, (2) within less than three months, (3) within three to six months, (4) within six to 12 months, and (5) after 12 months, of the date of application.


This question was answered on 15th July 2019

The following table provides the total number of referrals received for NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) for both Standard and Fast Track NHS CHC, for the years 2016/17 to 2018/19.

Number of Referrals Received

Period

Standard NHS CHC

Fast Track

Total NHS CHC

2016/17

76,945

88,420

165,365

2017/18

75,322

94,175

169,497

2018/19

73,475

97,273

170,748

NHS England collects and publishes data regarding the number of referrals completed, and of those, how many were assessed as eligible (as a percentage). A table showing these figures is attached due to the size of the data. The percentage of referrals agreed as eligible is based on the number of referrals ‘completed’ (rather than ‘referrals received’). Pre 2017/18 data did not use this counting methodology and therefore is not comparable. 2016/17 figures have therefore not been included.

The NHS CHC appeals process consists of clinical commissioning group local resolution and NHS England Independent Review. It is not possible to provide data on cases found eligible at local review or Independent Review as a percentage of applications initially assessed as not eligible.

We do not hold information on the percentage of NHS CHC referrals which were assessed as eligible within the requested time periods. NHS England does, however, hold information on the percentage of referrals completed within 28 days, and the latest annual information on this is included in the following table. This relates to Standard NHS CHC and not Fast Track NHS CHC.

% referrals within 28 days

Period

Standard NHS CHC

Referrals completed

Referrals completed in 28 days

% completed in 28 days

2018/19

76,803

53,504

70%

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