An interesting Department of Health document has emerged, which presages the transfer of personalisation ideas from social care to the NHS; in particular it announces the pilot schemes for personal health budgets, and direct payments (for example, for continuing care). This may well be of benefit to palliative care patients, so let’s hope someone agrees to do a palliative care pilot.

However, we need to remember that this is the beginning of people having to contribute to their NHS services. While it will be innocuous at the moment, in the long term it will probably mean that care services under the NHS (as opposed to treatment services) will have to be at least part paid for by patients. Budgetary strains being what they are, especially for older people, probably we’re going to have to pay an increasing proportion over the years. And this will have a big impact on palliative care, which will look to bureaucrats to be more of a care than a treatment service. In this case (contrary to the usual position of this blog, which is that the social is more important than the medical in palliative care)emphasising the role of medicine in palliative care is going to be a must.

Department of Health (2009) Primary Care and Community Health Services: Personal Health Budgets: First Steps. London: DH.

See it at: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_093842

You may have felt bored with more pics of St Christophers rebuilding works, so to make a change the new series is of some pics of St C’s in the snow this week, since this is likely to be an historic event happening every 20 years or so.

The Rotary garden from above: