Hi,
My Dad had a stroke nearly 3 years ago and since discharge he’s been at home which was a disaster that turned into sepsis and been in 3 care homes.
Care home 1 - he was given inappropriate medicine which stopped his breathing.
Care Home 2 - social services moved him because of serious safeguarding issues
Care home 3 - sepsis and then a hospitalisation caused by an incorrect catheterisation. He asked also admitted to a&e with dehydration.
Care Home 3 didn’t seem to think they had done anything wrong and didn’t seem very willing to put it right. So we made the decision that he shouldn’t go back.
Having found what we think is a suitable nursing home near to me with a good reputation. Not posh, but a good reputation. We have been told by Social Services we would need to pay a £500 a week top-up for him to go there. Since his stroke all his savings have now gone and he is funded by his private pension and by the Local authority.
I’m just curious as to how normal this is now? I know costs move on but £2000 per month seems wild.
Does anyone have a similar experience?
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I don’t have experience but did a google search. For someone with care needs 1500 a week seems to be the norm in my area which is rural Norfolk. Care is very expensive.
I hope you are getting help from your council.
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Hello @LynseyD,
You do need to do some shopping around. Care homes ARE very expensive and the better their quality, the higher the cost !
Best of luck.
Bob Isle.
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I cannot comment on care home fees as we opted to care for Mum at home. This decision was taken after trying to find a home which would meet Mum’s care needs and failing to find such a home.
Third party care is not cheap and it is not very good (in our opinion) but we had no choice as we simply could not manage this on our own and some respite was needed, good, bad or indifferent.
The care support we got after much chopping and changing was just about adequate but it needed plenty of supervision and post-session mopping up etc. Despite it being just about adequate, we (Mum) was paying a not insignificant amount towards here care. If you are deemed able to pay for your care, then you can expect to pay a lot - it isn’t cheap and the quality is poor. There are many horror stories and I guess there may be some who are lucky and get good care support, but we haven’t been that lucky. So we pay what we have to to make sure Mum is comfortable as she can be and we know we can’t do it on our own.
What is normal?
I don’t believe there is a normal, because as with everything else to do with Stroke, it’s a post code lottery and pot-luck. For some it’s great, for others, not so great and there are no easy answers as to how to level the playing field.
The only thing we can do is to try to get the best we can afford, and this will vary from individual to individual. Some will have to go with the absolute minimum which is what the state will pay for someone who has no savings and then others who have savings and private/state pensions will likely pay whatever they can afford or what they are willing to pay for the care they would like or can afford.
It is in my view, awful, totally unfair but it is the way it is and we must do what we believe is right and what we can realistically afford.
Almost certainly of no help to you, but I don’t think there is such a thing as “normal” in answer to your question.
Sorry!
Thanks for the replies. Just to be clear I’m looking at the third party top up that the family not the individual must pay. This is beyond the contribution of the individual and the local authority. Mum paid £25 per week at the first care home so £500 per week seems a bit bizarre.
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I know, but with care homes and care in general, you do get what you pay for.
We looked at a care home and the manager told us you won’t be able to afford this unless you sell your house and even then you might be looking at a year or two. So clearly this home was only ever going to be affordable to the super well off.
I can’t comment on the huge difference between the first home (£25) to the proposed new home (£500), other than to say it might be a type and they meant to say £50 instead of £500, or it may simply be the quality of care at the new home is that much better.
Best thing is ask you council to explain the difference.
I had a similar situation and I rang the accounts team at my council.
It turned out that whilst I thought I should be paying less, they actually reviewed Mum’s situation and she ended up paying more!!! I can tell you the difference was similar to what you’re showing, but they did explain it and we ended up paying it 
Such is life!