In response to a story reported in the Health Service Journal on 20 September 2017 ‘CSU blunder leads to hundreds of missed continuing healthcare alerts’ Dan Harbour, Managing Director of Beacon, said:

“Last week, a report by the BBC’s Inside Out East programme raised concerns about the integrity of the patient assessment process at the large commissioning support unit (CSU), Arden and Greater East Midlands (GEM). Now we hear of hundreds of alerts being missed at the same CSU, raising further questions of their competence to deliver a fair and effective Continuing Healthcare system for the people of Birmingham and beyond.

“We help scores of people each week who are trying to navigate Continuing Healthcare, and quite a number of our recent callers live in Arden and GEM’s patch. As such, we’re very concerned at the latest news about this CSU, which does chime with other issues of poor practice reported by our callers.

“We urge health service commissioners to make sure that any organisation managing Continuing Healthcare services on their behalf operates to the highest standards, because this system is there to help some of the most vulnerable people in society.”

Do you need our help?

Beacon CHC is a social enterprise providing ethical, expert and affordable help to help trying to navigate the maze of NHS Continuing Healthcare. For over 13 years, our team of specialist caseworkers have won over £8million in restitution for our clients, with a success rate of over 70% in cases brought to appeal.

We’re proud that, in addition to our paid-for casework, we provide free and independent help to hundreds of patients and families every week through the Information and Advice Service and free Navigational Toolkit.

If you have questions about any aspect of NHS Continuing Healthcare, call us on 0345 548 0300