Mr H | Anonymous
We were paying for fathers care out of our parents limited funds and all was going well in terms of care, but at approximately £100 a day our parents’ assets were rapidly being depleted. It was a friend who alerted me to NHS continuing healthcare, everyone I spoke to at the time, GPs surgery, etc feigned no knowledge or genuinely had no or very limited knowledge. The GPs practice manager rather ‘helpfully’ suggested that I try Google! I did. I worked out that NHS CHC funding is very difficult and complicated to obtain, this was confirmed by an acquaintance who is a retired NHS consultant, she stated that it was designed for people not to get. Again I Googled and found Compass, the initial contact on the phone was excellent in terms of inspiring confidence, the gentleman I spoke to reminded me of my very expensive lawyer.
I discussed the issue with my family and we decided that we would risk the investment with Compass, as ‘big picture’ even if nothing was achieved, spending money on Compass merely brought forward the point at which our parents’ assets would be depleted to such an extent that means tested state benefits kick in. This may sound perverse but it is the reality of the situation.
We engaged Compass, father caught Covid and was officially declared ‘end of life’ and placed on the end of life register. At this stage father’s care costs were picked up by NHS CHC, it was suggested that we select an undertaker as father was so ill. However, due to excellent care that was several months ago and father is doing very well. After six months as father ‘hadn’t died’ there was a review of father’s NHS CHC and one of the NHS functionaries said on the phone that it was very likely that father’s NHS CHC funding would cease after the review. We discussed this with Compass and engaged a member of the Compass team to act as father’s advocate at the NHS CHC review. Mr Mycroft Watts of Compass represented father at a Microsoft Teams meeting which lasted approximately two and a half hours, he had all the information at this fingertips and the outcome was that father continues to receive his NHS CHC funding. I am not convinced that we would have had the same outcome had we not engaged Compass. We as a family are very grateful for the help that we have received from Compass.
