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oh dear indeed - as someone who works in the area of the NHS that deals with personal health budgets (PHB), i can tell you they are a pain in the bum, and there are very few people who are able to benefit from them In theory, when someone is found eligible for NHS funding for their care, they could have a PHB if they want, although few do because being eligible means...
10:10 Tue 01st Sep 2015
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Just heard some common-purpose bull-*** merchant explaining this was a)only a tiny fraction of the NHS budget. b) A fantastic scheme (for wasting money)
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I didn't quite catch the beginning of this (radio) story.
But it sounded very like someone managed to wangle Virgin TV out of the NHS. " We can f/f through the adverts because they used to make our dad very anxious. Oh yes, we're very pleased with this scheme."
I flipping bet he is. You've got to wonder at how many ways the government can find to p1zz money up the wall. And how do some people get to hear about these weird and wonderful rackets.
various lucky people have personal health budgets

( I am undergoing chemo and I dont )

and someone has been thro the accounts and written an article on the some of the things he found ( duck houses and so on )

good story for a thin day

from Pulse a house mag for doctors - to the right CQC closes down surgery - of more interest as the CQC was specifically set up NOT to go in and close down dangerous practices at a moments notice....
Budget abuse. Probably because poor management can not interpret the rules/guidelines sensibly. I'm sure loads of things that ought not be paid for under a health budget can be argued would help folk, but every tenuous link of that nature is not what we are paying in for. NHS is supposed to be free at the point of use: I use my regular prescription and the NHS budget fails to cover that, but it seems others manage to wheedle out gifts ok.
This is yet another typical example of waste in the NHS.

But yet again the left who run the NHS will find some way of justifying this whilst blaming the Government for reducing Nurses and Doctors.

The NHS is a shambles, it needs the likes of Branson, Rose or Sugar to come in and shake it up from the top down. We could all save a fortune in taxes and end up with a service that will last for years to come. As it is the NHS is doomed to collapse.
What? How do you know what political persuasion people working in the NHS are?
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^Ho ho ho!
Well it wasn't helped when some government got it all reorganised and made it management/process/control heavy rather than care heavy. I've not taken sufficient interest to know if that's been reversed yet but have no reason not to think it has.
Some people do love to "stir" when they don't know all the facts.

My wife works with people given "personal budgets". It is for people who are ill or who have "special needs" to help them buy things to make their life easier.

As it says on the web site below, it can be used for all sorts of things, like holidays or computer equipment

Quote from web site:

What can I use a Personal Budget for?

You can use a Personal Budget in a variety of ways, but what you use it for must be directly related to meeting your ‘eligible needs’ for social care.

Some of the ways in which people using mental health services have chosen to use their Personal Budgets are:
•getting help with cooking, shopping and cleaning
•having short breaks or a holiday
•leisure activities, e.g. an art class or a walking group
•having driving lessons
•buying specialist or computer equipment to make life easier
•buying membership of a gym or sports club
•finding a job or learning new skills
•having an aromatherapy massage or other alternative therapy

http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/guides-to-support-and-services/personal-budgets/#.VeVhE3nluUk
Maybe the list of 'eligible needs' needs looking at ?
Carrying on from my append above.

My wife has to assess "Special needs" people as to their wants and needs.

Some young people with say Autism cant go out the house for safety reasons (their own and other peoples).

To help fill their time in the home they may spend a lot of time on a computer or games machine.

So if the person is awarded a "personal budget" they may chose to spend it buying a new computer or games console.

It a reasonable use of their money if that is what makes their life better.
-- answer removed --
A requirement, and consideration of, of a games machine should be an a separate welfare budget to the NHS as it isn't a strong medical need to cure a condition. The NHS is not a 'provide all' for anything that makes someone's life better.
Why would anyone suffering from such a health problem that a summer house or a pedalo boat, would benefit them?
From http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34110964 :
> In Northamptonshire, £2.55m was spent on personal health budgets for 161 patients, including on a sat-nav, new clothes, and the construction of a summer house so one patient could have "their own space"

That's an average of sixteen grand a head, on things like a summer house. On the NHS??? That's clearly ridiculous.

Maybe the recipients of these things really need them, or really wanted them, but some thought needs to be put into:

a) the people who are paying for these things and
b) the people who aren't receiving treatment for their problems on the NHS so that these things can be paid for
AOG - I did not spoil a thread, I gave my opinion, but lets not ruin Svejk's thread.
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Got to disagree with you, VHG. In some ideal world where no-one was denied treatment on cost grounds, we might, just might think about supplying holidays and X-boxes. Until then, this is ridiculous.
the link that VHG gives refers to social care, which is not part of the NHS budget, so is not relevant to this debate.
This is not a "debate", it's just a forum for small minded, snidey little people to vent their venom. I'm sure you could name them without too much difficulty.
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Really? Come back when your, say, grandchildren are denied cancer drugs on cost grounds.

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