In the last edition of our newsletter, we told you about new regulations to enable people to received Direct Payments to purchase their healthcare needs.
NHS England has launched a programme for the voluntary and community sector to help them ‘gear up’ for personal health budgets so they have the knowledge, capacity and expertise to inform their local communities about personal health budgets.
We are delighted to tell you that following our successful bid, KDC has been selected as one of only 28 organisations across the country to take part.
From April 2014, people eligible for NHS continuing healthcare will have the ‘right to ask’ their clinical commissioning group (CCG) for a personal health budget and from October 2014, they will have the ‘right to have’ one. However most people don’t know what a personal health budget is, let alone that they will soon be entitled to have one.
We know from recent evaluation of personal health budgets that they can help give people a better quality of life, better health outcomes and help keep them out of hospital. KDC’s involvement in the programme will ensure that as many people as possible in Knowsley are aware of personal health budgets, know how to get one, and importantly know what they can expect from the NHS.
Over the next few months we will be taking part in a national development programme of learning and sharing with others and we will be developing detailed information and helpful guidance about personal health budgets for Knowsley residents. Look out for further updates in future newsletters. If you think you could benefit from a personal health budget, please contact Andy Gilbert here at KDC on 480 8873.
