People in South Yorkshire are less likely to receive fully funded care than anywhere else in the country, according to ourlatest figures. They are up to 15 times less likely to receive fully funded care than some other areas of the country.

Residents in both South and West Yorkshire have also seen the biggest decrease – over 50% - in the levels of fully funded care over the last three years, at a time when national levels have been going up – primarily due to a number of high profile court cases.

Anyone whose primary need is for care – even if they are not based in a hospital – should have their care paid for by the NHS. Widely varying guidance from Strategic Health Authorities means that there is a huge difference in who qualifies for fully funded care in different areas and in different years.

The Department of Health has long known about the lottery in fully funding care, but are now consulting on this issue. Age Concern urges anyone with an interest in this issue to respond to the Department's consultation.

Gordon Lishman, Director General of Age Concern, said:

"We knew that there were significant differences in how people's care is paid for - but we are surprised at the scale of these unacceptable variations. This real and unforgivable postcode lottery means that many deserving people in Yorkshire are missing out on having fully funded care from the NHS.

"Local differences in the profile of people who should be getting continuing care do not account for the enormous local variation in figures. NHS trusts in Yorkshire need to take responsibility for paying for the healthcare of local people, and the Government and local social service departments must ensure that the NHS is paying for the very services they were created to provide.

"We are extremely worried about the reduction in the amount of people who received fully funded care in some areas, especially at a time when the funding of care is slowly increasing across the country. How can a service that is based on people's ongoing needs fall over 50% in one year and be almost 15 times less likely to occur in one area than another? It is deplorable, and the NHS trusts and the Government need to act immediately.”

Notes

1. Readers can get more information on fully-funded care from our website or from our information line on 0800 00 99 66.

2. The statistics come from a parliamentary question asked by Sandra Gidley MP. The full table of the number of people receiving continuing care as at 31 March 2006 is below

Note:
Data are only collected annually in Q4 of each year (LDPR, line 8228)

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