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Gordon Lishman, Director General of Age Concern, said:

“The new criteria look good in theory, but will be irrelevant unless there’s a shift in attitude in the NHS.

“The criteria and the new decision-making process are undoubtedly an improvement on the current mess. However, without a change in culture within the health service, significant retraining and extra money for the increased numbers receiving continuing care, PCTs will continue to deny eligible people the funding for care they deserve.

“The decision support tool – which the NHS will use to help them make decisions on individual cases – still makes us wonder whether fully-funded continuing care might still be wrongly denied in some areas.

“There are 70,000 people who are currently missing out on continuing care and despite the hype, we fear only a lucky few will benefit.”

Notes to editors

Age Concern will be looking very carefully at the guidance and the decision support tool, and discussing it with lawyers. It is vital that guidance and associated material issued by the Government reflects the law and the caselaw in this complex area. Our initial impressions of the decision support tool might still lead to the bar being set too high.

New DH statistics revealed by Age Concern this weekend revealed that the numbers receiving continuing care has 25,008 to 30,975 – a significant rise, but still far from the over 100,000 people that Age Concern believes should receive Continuing Care. 

The regional disparity is also very concerning: The number of people in the East Midlands and South Coast SHAs has fallen, while people in the North East or South Central are twice likely to get continuing care as people in the North West or East Midlands.

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