Tuesday 7 July 2015

Total Community Care: Continuing Healthcare



In this day and age of advances in research and technology it is depressing that many of the spinal cord community still have to struggle with very basic needs.  Innovations such as the Exo skeleton and breakthroughs in research involving stem cell therapy are clearly hugely positive and genuinely exciting.

However we at TCC Ltd continue to hear and get involved with very depressing stories of individuals who have to fight to obtain funding and struggle against a system that seems illogical and unfair. The geographical variances in meeting the criteria of continuing health care is something that we regularly have to work with. Clients in neighbouring counties with the same level of injury and same care needs receiving dramatically different funding is very familiar territory to us. The use of District or Community nurse input for an inflexible bowel regime is also something we hear a lot of; reinforcing TCC Ltd’s strongly held belief that clients should have their own bespoke team who can provide for all of their care needs. Even worse are those who receive inadequate care through “drop in” visits often through a domiciliary care provider who has little specialist knowledge of spinal cord injury; thus placing the individual at significant risk of harm.

The system creaks on and there are positives on the horizon with personal health budgets becoming a reality and more joined up thinking in some areas with health and social care budgets being shared.

The SIA do fantastic work in the area of funding with Brian O’Shea happy to take up the battle to inform and educate health care professionals on some of the issues faced by spinal cord injured clients. TCC Ltd are proud to support the Spinal injuries Association in all of the work that they do and look forward to our continued relationship in promoting the rights  of individuals with a spinal cord injury.

Chris Freestone – Director, Total Community Care

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