The aim is to give people more independence over how their healthcare money is spent.
A personal health budget is an amount of NHS money available to some people with long-term conditions to meet their healthcare and wellbeing needs. People design and agree a plan with their healthcare team that shows how they will use the budget to meet their goals, which could include therapies, personal care and equipment.
Writing for ehospice earlier this year, Stephen McCauley, Advocacy and Policy Manager at Help the Hospices, highlighted the potential for personal budgets to extend choice and control for people at the end of life.
Stephen writes: “Personal budgets have the potential to be a useful tool in extending choice and control at the end of life but they will not be appropriate for all patients. Nevertheless, they will surely grow over the next few years as a key aspect of the personalisation agenda in health and social care.”
From October this right to ask will be strengthened to the right to have their care delivered in this way. And from April 2015 it is expected that anyone with a long-term condition who could benefit from a personal health budget will have the option of one.
Find out more about personal budgets on the NHS England or NHS Choices websites.
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