Continuing Healthcare Assessments - Find a freedom of information request

1. Please provide details for Lincolnshire County Council of the test applied to Continuing Healthcare Assessments, the reference being Grogan v Bexley NHS Caretrust “107. In that consideration in my view the Caretrust should;

i) Identify the test it applies

With regard to the request below to identify the test LCC applies in relation to R Grogan v Bexley NHS Care Trust (referred to as Grogan v Bexley NHS Care Trust in the request). Whilst this case is relevant to the process set out by the National Framework for NHS Continuing Health and NHSfunded Nursing Care October 2018 (Revised) for determining whether or not a person is eligible for NHS continuing healthcare no specific test arose from it for either health or local authorities to apply.

The case considered the local criteria in place at the time the person was assessed and found not eligible for NHS continuing healthcare but eligible for the High Band of the Registered Nursing Care Contribution (RNCC).

In brief the conclusion was that the continuing healthcare criteria the person was assessed against wasn't compliant with the primary health need approach that arose from previous case law, usually simply referred to as 'the Coughlan Case' (R v North Devon Health Authority, ex parte Pamela Coughlan) and that the criteria for High Band RNCC was equal to, if not higher, than the criteria for NHS continuing healthcare.

Following the Grogan case the RNCC, which had Low, Medium and High Bands was replaced with a single band of contribution called Funded Nursing Care (FNC). As a combined result of the Coughlan and Grogan a person's eligibility for NHS continuing healthcare must be determined by applying the primary health need test (concept arising from the Coughlan case) and should not be awarded FNC without having their eligibility for NHS continuing care assessed first.