Bolton Hospital collaborates with Grace to bolster care advice provision

by Richard Kilner

Story link: Bolton Hospital collaborates with Grace to bolster care advice provision

Ivan Lewis, health minister, has raised the issue of care advice, and the lack of provision made for it.

The minister, speaking in the House of Commons, explained that he and others had been told by a large number of elderly people and families that the difficult choices they are faced with regarding are compounded by the absence of accessible and helpful information.

Grace Consulting, a firm with a nationwide network of care advisors, is now to provide its services to qualifying members of Hospital Saturday.

Grace’s services and designed to be as personal as possible to ease the difficult and emotional decisions families are faced with.

Both the relatives and the individual requiring care are spoken with by the firm’s care advisors in order to find the best possible option for those involved.

This can mean locating the most suitable care home, or the best method for the individual to remain in their own home.

In addition to this advice, Grace offers guidance regarding the thorny issue of state funding and benefits.

Seventy thousand people annually are forced to sell their homes to pay for the cost of care, which can reach as much as £50,000 per year.

Chris Cain, Grace’s managing director, described the situation as a black hole where good quality, independent care advice should be provided but is not.

Cain expressed his delight at Hospital Saturday’s move to improve the provision of advice available to its members.

Hospital Saturday’s chief executve, Trevor Nicholls, has said he is delighted to add the service to Bolton Hospital Saturday.