While the following Parliamentary answer will not be news to readers of this blog, it does remind us that the government plans to introduce direct payments to the continuing care system next year. If they want to experiment, they could do it for palliative care patients first, many of whom would appreciate the flexibility that direct payments offers.

10 Nov 2008 : Column 826W
Continuing Care: Finance

Jeremy Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he plans to begin the national pilot programme on primary care trusts making direct payments for people eligible for fully funded continuing care; and if he will make a statement. [231588]

Mr. Bradshaw: As announced in the Next Stage Review, we will launch a pilot programme in 2009 to test personal health budgets, as a way of giving patients greater control over the services they receive and the providers from which they receive services.

As part of the programme, we intend to pilot the use of health care direct payments, where it makes most sense for particular patients in specific circumstances. We intend to bring forward legislation to enable this; subject to parliamentary approval, we will extend the pilot programme to include health care direct payments from 2010.

The rest of the programme will explore models of personal health budget where the budget is held on the patient’s behalf. These are already available to primary care trusts under current legislation, and also offer considerable scope to give patients more choice and control.

Hansard at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm081110/text/81110w0013.htm