NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding for End-of-Life Care: What You Should Know

For people approaching end of life, NHS Continuing Healthcare can be accessed through an urgent pathway that bypasses the standard two-stage assessment process. Understanding how this works, and how to access it quickly, can make a critical difference for families in this situation.

What is the Fast Track NHS Continuing Healthcare pathway?

Fast Track NHS Continuing Healthcare is designed for situations where a person is rapidly deteriorating or has a condition that is expected to cause death in the near future. A clinician (typically a GP, consultant, or specialist nurse) completes a Fast Track Pathway Tool. If the application is approved, NHS Continuing Healthcare funding can be put in place within days rather than weeks.

This means that where a person has urgent care needs, including the need to move home from hospital or to increase care provision, those needs can be met by the NHS without waiting for the standard assessment process.

Who can apply for Fast Track NHS Continuing Healthcare?

Any registered clinician who is treating the person can initiate a Fast Track application. This includes GPs, hospital consultants, palliative care nurses, and specialist nurses. The Fast Track Pathway Tool requires the clinician to confirm that the person has a rapidly deteriorating condition and that a need for palliative or end-of-life care exists.

Families can request that a clinician considers initiating a Fast Track application. SG67 can advise on how to approach this conversation and can act urgently if an application is needed.

Can Fast Track NHS Continuing Healthcare be refused?

Yes, and it is refused more often than it should be. Fast Track applications can be declined by the ICB, delayed without proper justification, or have funding withdrawn after it has been put in place. All of these situations can be challenged.

SG67 acts urgently in Fast Track cases. If an application has been refused, delayed, or has not yet been initiated in a situation where it is clearly needed, contact us as a priority.

What care does Fast Track NHS Continuing Healthcare cover?

Fast Track NHS Continuing Healthcare covers the full cost of whatever care is needed to meet the person's health needs at end of life. This may include:

• Nursing home or residential care home placement

• 24-hour care at home

• District nursing visits and specialist nursing input

• Palliative care support

• Equipment and aids required for care at home

Does NHS Continuing Healthcare funding end when the person dies?

NHS Continuing Healthcare funding ceases when the person passes away. However, a retrospective claim for historic NHS Continuing Healthcare funding can be made on behalf of the estate, including for care costs paid privately before the person died. SG67 handles retrospective claims and can advise whether a claim is worth pursuing.