Arrangements to move a care home resident at short notice
An important ombudsman report has outlined key considerations to be taken when it becomes necessary to move a care home resident (in this case one with dementia).
The resident (aged 91) was funded by a local authority and her home had been chosen as it was near to her husband (aged 90) whose health made it inappropriate for him to travel long distances to visit her. Unbeknown to the husband the home had been in discussions with the Council for over two years about funding levels. In July 2017 it told him that his wife would need to move (as a registration change would prevent it from accommodating patients with EMI needs). What followed was a hasty search by the husband for a suitable care home for his wife – while the local authority acted with insufficient urgency. When the husband chose a care home above the local authority ‘going rate’ he was required to ‘top up the fees’ which the ombudsman thought to be inappropriate: that the ‘grounds on which the Council argued against the suitability of the [home chosen by the husband] (and the appropriacy of the alternatives) were purely financial and not based on any clear, up-to-date sense of precisely what [his wife’s] needs were’.
To access the full report, click here.
Photograph of ‘Maen y Gaseg’ by Richard Jones -@lluniaurich