PEOPLE in Gwent who are considering making a backdated claim for Continuing NHS Healthcare funding have until the end July to do so.

A cut-off date was announced earlier this year by the Welsh Government for applications relating to retrospective reviews for Continuing NHS Healthcare funding for the period April 1 2003-July 31 2013.

And with a month to go, anyone looking at the issue of whether the cost of theirs or a relative’s care during that period might have fallen under provisions, should be formulating a claim.

Continuing NHS Healthcare funding (CHC) refers to packages of services arranged and funded solely by the NHS for those who have been assessed as having a primary health need.

It can be provided in a hospital, a hospice, a care home, or in a person’s own home. If a patient, a family member or authorised representative were paying for care during the above dates, they may be entitled to request a review of the relevant person’s needs during this time.

If it is established that the primary need is healthcare, the care package should be funded by the NHS, but often this issue has not been tested or a person or their family has not been aware that they may be entitled to funding.

Continuing Healthcare has posed a problem for many health boards as well as NHS trusts across the UK over the past decade, with budgets often over-running due to higher than expected levels of claims and the expensive nature of many of the care packages.

In Gwent a higher than anticipated number of mainly older people who have been switched onto Continuing Healthcare (CHC) care packages from funded nursing care has contributed to an early health board budget overspend for 2014/15.

Similar deadlines elsewhere have produced a surge in claims and subsequent expense, but retrospective funding can often reimburse patients and families money they should not have had to pay out.