Personal Health Budgets

A personal health budget is an amount of money that is spent on meeting the health care and wellbeing needs of NHS patients with a long-term illness or disability.

A personal health budget makes it clear to you, and the people who support you, how much money is available for your care and how it will be spent.

You can help make important decisions about how you want to spend your budget to meet your needs and the health outcomes. This may include choosing treatments and services that are most appropriate for you – from specialist equipment, extra NHS services such as a physiotherapist, to carer support and respite.

A personal budget can help people feel more in control of their lives, achieving better health outcomes and save money for reinvestment into health services.

NHS Medway and NHS Eastern & Coastal Kent are 2 of 20 in-depth pilot sites taking part in a national pilot to look at the potential benefits of personal health budgets. Between the two pilot sites a wide range of condition groups are represented.

NHS Medway are exploring whether personal health budgets work for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), dementia, and with neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, and stroke.

NHS Eastern and Coastal Kent are exploring whether they work for women accessing maternity services, people accessing continuing health care services, people who are nearing the end of their life, and people accessing mental health services. Support will be offered by NHS Medway and Medway Council to help recipients develop their health plan to achieve their health outcomes.

330 people across Kent & Medway have taken the opportunity to inform national strategy by sharing their individual experiences with us. Of these individuals, 164 people have been offered the opportunity decide how best allocated NHS funding can be spent on meeting their health needs.

Some have chosen to work with incumbent NHS providers whilst others are finding alternative ways of meeting their health needs. Many are trying a mixture of both.

What is a Personal Health Budget?

A Personal Health Budget is an amount of money that is spent on meeting the health care and wellbeing needs of people, generally those with a long term illness or disability. The intention is to give people more choice and control over the services that they receive by:

Focusing on the health outcomes important to them;
Giving them control over the services that they require to achieve these outcomes;
Enabling them to take control over how the money is spent.

At the heart of a personal health budget is the Personal Health Plan. A Personal Health Plan is developed by individuals in partnership with their health care professional, such as a doctor or nurse, or with someone from their voluntary/community organisation, or from a professional service that offers support. The plan sets out the person’s health care and wellbeing needs, the health outcomes they want, the amount of money in the budget, how this will be spent, and how they will keep manage any risks.

NHS Medway and Medway Council are working together to ensure that everyone who wishes to take part if offered support from a Self Directed Support Coordinator. The Self Directed Support Coordinator can help potential budget recipients to develop their Personal Health Plan and to achieve their agreed health outcomes. The Personal Health Plan must then be signed off by NHS Medway, the Primary Care Trust.

Some Key Points:

NHS values still hold
No one will pay their own money to get services they need
No one will be denied essential treatment, i.e. access to emergency services and a general practitioner, as a result of having a personal health budget
The scheme is voluntary and no one will be forced to have a personal health budget
Having a personal health budget does not entitle someone to more services, more expensive services, or preferential access to NHS services
Services should be safe and effective. Using them should be a positive experience
Personal health budgets should help people get a service from the NHS that best suits them
Individuals will have as much control over decisions as is appropriate for them. No one is left on their own – they will have support when they make their decisions.
Individuals may choose to control as much or as little of their healthcare as is appropriate for them. You may have very complex health needs but may only wish to control one or two elements of your care that are important to you
Organisations across Medway will work in partnership with you and with each other.