People with complex health needs gain ‘right to have’ personal health budgets
Some of the people who rely most on NHS services today get the right to have their care delivered through a personal health budget.
It marks an important landmark in NHS England’s vow to get serious about the personalisation of care for people living with long term, disabling or life limiting health conditions.
It will allow around 60,000 adults eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare, and children who receive continuing care, the option of directing how their health budget is best used to meet their own personal health outcomes.
- For more on this read a blog by Giles Wilmore, Director for Patient & Public Voice & Information, who welcomes this new opportunity to put ‘patients in control’ as the NHS makes a further commitment to person-centred care.
2 comments
This certainly demonstrates a serious focus on personalisation of care for people living with long term, disabling or life limiting health conditions.
As part of the personal health budgets pilot acupuncture was offered successfully.
Acupuncture is supported by NICE for low back pain, and prophylaxis for tension type headache. SIGN also recommend acupuncture for chronic pain.
I hope those on PHBs are offered the option to use a local acupuncturist – you can find one by going to [Link removed]
In theory a great day for personalised health delivery,putting the power into the hands of people with significant health care need(s).Do not let anybody be fooled that the “right” per se will deliver empowerment to citizens.The experience in social care may be illustrative where nationally there appears to be lack of consistently good prevention strategies,notwithstanding the message in the Review of FACS Guidance 2010,even poorer support for co-produced support plans across most LA’s.May be as a national service outstanding leaders of policy AND practice will emerge across CCG’s to deliver what as yet social care,for a variety of reasons,not least being economic and social policies ,has failed to do across the piece.
The embedding of the legal right will demand tremendous drive and transformational change within an organisation whose culture is even more top down,paternalistic,and resistant to radical changes in power relationships than social care ever was.Left to itself a legal right will remain in the legislation rather than make real differences to people’s health,well-being and lives.
Good luck.