Reply from Stephen Ladyman

Discussion in 'ARCHIVE FORUM: Support discussions' started by Jude, Oct 29, 2004.

  1. Jude

    Jude Registered User

    #1 Jude, Oct 29, 2004
    Last edited: Oct 29, 2004
    Dear Members,

    I have FINALLY received this response from Stephen Ladyman to our letters. It's dated 10 September and I find it quite amazing that it has taken almost 6 weeks to travel from London to get here! I was tempted to rip this letter into a squillion pieces and dance on the top of it. I've restrained myself thus far and am reproducing it for 'entertainment' value only....... So -

    'We recognise that dementia is a distressing condition for families as well as for those directly affected.

    However, rather than making personal care free, we believe it is fairer to spend what it would cost to fund free personal care on improving services for all older people and their carers. The result of our decision is now becoming clear with the publication of this year's performance indicators. In England, 81,500 people are now able to receive extensive home care to maintain their independence. The proporition of people being supported in their own home has risen from 7.9 per 1000 households aged over 65 in 1998/99 to 10.5 per 1000 last year. Most older people tell us that what they want is to stay longer in their own home and this is being made possible because the money that would otherwise be spent on free personal care is being used to support home care for all older people.

    It may also be helpful if I explain the distinction between personal care and nursing care. Personal care is any care that may be needed by someone to help him or her with personal needs such as bathing, dressing and undressing, eating and using the lavatory. It may also cover advice, encouragement and supervisision in these activities. Personal care costs are met either by the recipient or by the local authority on a means-tested basis, so depending on their circumstances, there may be a charge for this aspect of an individual's care.

    In contrast, nrusing care refers to any action taken by a registrered nurse in providing planning and supervising a person's health care. Such care can be provided at home, in a care home, or a residential home. In October 2001, we delivered on our commitment set out in the NHS Plan to bring in free care from a registrered nurse for people paying for their care home fees themselves. NHS funded nursing care is assessed purely on he grounds of an idndividual's medical needs.

    Also where an individual's assessed continuing medical needs are of a certain level, as defined by the SHS Authoritiy's eligibility critieria, then that individual's package of care is fully funded by the NHS and is described as NHS continuing care. It can be provided in a hospital, people's own homes or in care homes. Whre the NHS is providing continuing health care, in the context of a hospital or care home, all continuing care is available to people with dementia who meet the same needs criteria as are applied to people with any other condition.

    I hope you find this information helpful.'

    Stephen Ladyman

    Er, yeah Stevie Baby, thanks for telling ME about personal care, as if I didn't get the point already...... Performance indicators? What a load of continuing b******.

  2. Chesca

    Chesca Guest

    Dear Jude

    Very patronising stuff! on your behalf I have printed a copy of this, ripped it to shreds and have just danced all over it - that's my exercise for the week done! Hope you feel better now!

    Isn't it the SHS eligibility criteria that's creating major problems as it is post code based, there is no national strategy? I'm confused but suppose that's how a politico works - confuse us so that we take so much time working out what we are supposed to do by which time they have moved the goalposts yet again.

    All I know is that Mum was admitted into full-time nursing care on the orders of her consultant as she was at risk. There could be no provision made for her to have such support at home. However, she is paying all of her income and her estate will go towards the cost of her care at the end of the day!

    Why? That's what nobody seems to want to answer.

    Love for now
  3. Jude

    Jude Registered User

    Dear Chesca,

    Yep - the elegibility criteria IS the whole point because it is totally wrong. I just love the bit about elderly people telling us they want to stay longer in their own homes.

    If my parents had been granted personal care funding, then I would not have had to sell our family home to pay for it. The other thing that really has made me furious lately is to find out that my parents have being paying Council Tax in error for the past 6 years.

    If they HAD received personal care funding and exemption from Council Tax, then this together with their pensions and investments would have given them sufficient income to stay the house where they had lived for 40 years!!!

    No wonder I'm spitting chips......

  4. barraf

    barraf Registered User

    Mar 27, 2004
    Dear All

    I too received a reply from my MP this week in reply to my third email on the subject of free care for dementia sufferers.

    I have printed it below with a copy of my last email.

    As you will see he is still wriggling, and I am afraid he always will.

    Dear Mr Barraclough,

    I am sorry that you were disappointed with my replies to your emails.

    In my letters to you I explained the background to the issue, including the current situation regarding funding and why I support the Government’s position and am therefore unwilling to sign the EDM. I am sorry that this was not clear from my letters. I feel that the complexity of the issue and the choices facing the Government on NHS spending required more than a yes or no answer.

    Regarding the new IT system for the NHS, the figures in the press are not entirely accurate and the funding for the IT system is extra investment rather than redirected investment. This investment is needed to update and improve NHS IT systems. The new system aims to deliver great benefits, providing greater choice, more control over services and ultimately a more efficient health service. I appreciate your concerns and hope that the investment will be value for money, but I think that we need to wait and see how it works in practice before condemning the investment.

    Yours sincerely,

    Barry Sheerman MP

    ----Original Message-----
    From: Frank Barraclough []
    Sent: 18 October 2004 19:01
    To: SHEERMAN, Barry
    Subject: Healthcare for people with dementia

    Your ref, 04-10-027 CON XX-JB

    04-08-024 CON XX-EW

    Dear Mr Sheerman

    Thank you for you two letters in reply to my queries on Healthcare for people with dementia.

    You have up to now failed to answer either of the two question I put forward.

    The first question was, would you sign the EDM proposing free health care for people with dementia. All this required was a simple YES or NO. What I got in reply was five paragraphs, non of which applied to the question.

    My email in response to your first letter repeated the question and also asked what your position was on the overspend of £24 Billion on a computer system for the NHS. Again what I got in reply was another five paragraphs, non of which applied to the questions either.

    With this aptitude for ignoring difficult questions and pouring out pages of gobbledegook I think you should go far in your chosen profession.

    I look forward to hearing from you with a simple answer to simple questions. After all you can live in hope if you die in despair.

    Yours sincerely

    Frank Barraclough
  5. Kriss

    Kriss Registered User

    May 20, 2004
    "It may also be helpful if I explain the distinction between personal care and nursing care"

    The patronising g*t!

    Sorry - can't begin to express my feelings...

  6. Norman

    Norman Registered User

    Oct 9, 2003
    Birmingham Hades
    I have printed 100 copies of the letter hung them on a nail in the outside WC.I don't even get replies from Mr Mamood,there again he is now a parlimentary secretary,touch fore lock,grovel kiss my cheek
  7. Jude

    Jude Registered User

    Dear Friends,

    It seems fairly clear that the 'elected leaders of the people' are a bunch of drongos and that bureacracy serves only to perpetuate it's own mindless inefficiency. So, what's new? Yes, Minister......

    Anyway, I shall write another letter to Steviepops shortly and probably in the same vein as he replied to me. I shall assume he is 5 years old and with an IQ of 16.

  8. storm

    storm Registered User

    Aug 10, 2004
    Dear Jude,Please do not insulte 5yr olds he as a IQ of i dont know i cant think of anything that i can spell that fits the bill.storm
  9. Sheila

    Sheila Registered User

    Oct 23, 2003
    West Sussex
    How about one million copies in a hireplane dropped on parliament! It beggars belief, when some one has dementia, personal choice goes out the window, regardless of how the family cope with it all, you can be darn sure SS/government doesn't lose out in the sweepstakes of who pays for it if they have any savings, regardless of what they paid in during their working life, what they did in their youth for the country, etc. etc. Grrrrrrr Love She. XX
  10. Norman

    Norman Registered User

    Oct 9, 2003
    Birmingham Hades
    you are lovely when you are angry grrr grrr
  11. Chesca

    Chesca Guest

    #11 Chesca, Oct 31, 2004
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 31, 2004
    Norman! One Grrr and you're anybody's! Turn my back for one minute and you'll grrr with the loudest grrr-er. Well, fickle I call it, fickle!! And I have this straight from the horse's mouth of St George's lions in all their stately splendour.

    DrOngos? DrongOs? Fourteen days to go and Jude's already reverting to type, and that's just the start! What are we going to do without her? particulary when we won't be able to understand a word she says if she does try to communicate on her Drongos (or should that be bongos? similar but the same - hit 'em and an empty sound reverberates or, again, is that politicians? I know I started for some reason....)

    And as for the rest of you.................carm down! carm down! carm down! - and remember you're British, and as such have the right of a far.

    Like you need a lecture? There are rather a lot of us carers - not just of AD sufferers - working in the Government's very own Black Economy! to the tune of £billions (Barraf, help!, cash flow reports and quick! what is it with you men, never there when we need you! and did you check the oil in the car? I know it nearly blew up! what do I know? I'm a woman where cars are concerned! nitpicker).

    Anyway, whilst most people are sympathetic to causes minority, perhaps an effort should be made to also look kindly upon those Govermental Lady Men amongst us whatever the petticoat of their choice - after all, ladies, was it not Mrs Pankhurst and her suffragettes flinging themselves 'neath the hooves of the favourite in the 4 o'clock Chauvanistic Stakes Ascot that afforded us the luxury of deciding whether or not, indeed, to wear such a garment? Leave the petticoats to the ladymen, they who speak with 'fawked' tongues. We need to find somebody with a little more 'bawls' and am taking this opportunity to research at Twickenham amongst the well-honed of the Rugby heroes - expenses permitting! No photographers allowed!! Shush!

    All (or none) of which, neatly, brings me back to Drongos: Australasian for 'we lost the World Cup' I do believe. Jude will, no doubt, correct my translation as necessary!

  12. Jude

    Jude Registered User

    Oz Dictionary

    DRONGO - a male of minimal IQ , usually easily recognisable in a 'uniform' of stubbies and blue vest [see GALAH] although there are some upwardly mobile Drongos who tend to wear shirts and long socks with their stubbies.

    GALAH - a very noisy bird with an equally small IQ, but with rather more dress sense.

    STUBBIES - blue shorts or alternatively a can of lager. Can be worn together on Friday arvo's, especially in Darwin, when BLUE'S are common.

    ARVO - Midday to 6.30pm

    G'DAY WADDERYERNO - Traditional form of Drongo greeting which loosely translates as 'Good Morning, How are you today?'

    BLUE - A brawl. Traditionally taking place between Drongos on a Friday arvo. Alternatively,

    BLUE - the preferred name for an Australian Cattle Dog.

    Do hopes this helps.........!

  13. Chesca

    Chesca Guest

    Very apt! Politician: A Drongo Galah or would that grammatically be a Galah Drongo.

    So, there is a high probability that come Friday arvo one could be chucking a crate of stubbies down your trunk whilst sitting in your stubbies, which are blue, Blue chewing on a meaty chunk by your side, looking forward to the mayhem of a blue which is a high old ding dong? Think, I'm getting the hang of it

    Ok, I'll buy it - always provided I can raise the airfare to Darwin!

  14. Jude

    Jude Registered User

    Congratulations, you just passed Intro I to 'Strine Language. Just remember that the inflexion is 'up' at the end of every sentence - holding your nose whilst practising helps pronunciation.

  15. Sheila

    Sheila Registered User

    Oct 23, 2003
    West Sussex
    Norm, it's the bulging green bits that get to be a problem! Love She. XX
  16. Geraldine

    Geraldine Registered User

    Oct 17, 2003
    I've made an appointment at my local MP's surgery in december to discuss this problem. Mum's case is still under discussion although the PCT lead for continuing care has as good as admitted to me that the policy is cash driven not needs driven and has been written to exclude as many people as possible inlcuding those with strokes, brain tumours and not just dementia patients. It make me sick when I think of all the NHS money spent on treating those whose 'lifestyle' choices has caused the illness when those who are ill through no fault of their own have to pay. In many case it is those who have looked after themselves and live to a longer age who are penalized most.

    Yours in despair

  17. Brucie

    Brucie Registered User

    Jan 31, 2004
    near London
    Even when you get Continuing Care, you can't depend on keeping it. I gave a lift today to the wife of a resident at Jan's home who had been summoned to discuss the contributions that 'need' to be made from now on, since her husband has had the basis of his care - Continuing Care funding - changed.

    As an aside, the Service Agreement for the home includes the following text:


    10.1 In the Agreement masculine shall include the feminine and neuter and vice versa and the singular shall include plural and vice versa.

    Blimey, are they neutering us now as well?

    Whatever happened to plain English, anyhow?

    They missed out what we all know:

    And you shall be bu**ered, but not vice versa.

    P.S. this is not intended to be a comment on the home, by the way, which is superb. They just have to cover themselves because of the organisations they have to deal with.

    In terms of Jan's care, the SS has got agreement for her to have round the clock 1-to-1 care and wrote to me saying they would now step back, having arranged it. Good work! The only thing is that, although they are providing it, the home has not actually been paid for this at all, since the local PCT is trying to offload the cost onto a neighbouring PCT and in the process, NO-ONE is paying. Territorial disputes and pass-the-parcel. Hah!
  18. Jude

    Jude Registered User

    Dear Brucie,

    Sounds pretty typical doesn't it?

    We had a visit from our new CPN yesterday, who mentioned to me that she thinks there is funding available for people who are seriously displaced by having to move and become full time carers. She is going to investigate it for me. Sounds interesting, but I'm not holding my breath.

  19. Sheila

    Sheila Registered User

    Oct 23, 2003
    West Sussex
    Dear Jude, never heard of that one but go for it girl, halfway round the word is a VERY serious dispacement in my book!! Love She. XX
  20. Jude

    Jude Registered User

    Dear Sheila,

    Yes, well it's a new one on me too. Hope to have some news next week.


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