PMI must adapt and cover needs of ageing society
A willingness to pull out all the stops to provide care and independence at home for the elderly and disabled has been one of the finer achievements of our National Health Service (NHS) and its suppliers. Adaptation of homes and well-designed equipment have all played a part in providing what mobility-impaired people appreciate and need.
But the sector may have to become more inventive and receptive to different funding models, very likely involving a partnership role with private health insurance providers, if it is to maintain levels of service.
There is growing evidence that two trends in particular are beginning to converge: first, increased numbers of elderly and disabled people are living much longer than before, and as a result, there is an escalating need for funding; second, there is the probability that a substantial funding gap is emerging and the NHS will be unable, for very much longer, to fund those needs to a degree society would find acceptable.
Research by the Institute for Ageing and Health last year showed those over the age of 65 in Europe will increase by 60% to 103 million in the next four decades. By 2036, the UK alone will have three million people over the age of 85 while the numbers of those over 65 are also to rise by 60% over the next forty years
At the same time, health funding financed by the taxpayer, is under increasing pressure from highly expensive treatments for cancer and heart disease steadily imposing themselves on the NHS budget.
As a result, the supply of stairlifts by local health boards is already showing signs of beginning to dry up, and private health insurance companies will start to fill the gap. These are critical, not impulse or vanity, purchases. If someone needs a stairlift, they need it right away.
Already, there are significant numbers of older people in the ABC1 socio-economic category who have retained their work-related private health insurance after retirement. These people are likely to demand increasingly that it should cover their needs for stairlifts, adaptations and mobility equipment as they grow older. In addition, the number of people turning to private health insurers in the absence of local authority provision for such services is set to grow further.
In light of this, we are likely to see private health insurance companies increasingly forging links with suppliers within the sector who are affiliated to trade bodies such as the British Healthcare Trades Association, where membership assures a reputable, fair and efficient service.
In this environment, it may also make good sense for the occupational therapy profession to be open to closer links with insurers in the interests of creating the most practical, efficient and cost-effective service for its customers.
As these discernible trends converge, it is clear private health insurance provision must evolve steadily to allow domestic adaptations to be provided within a wider package of health care, thereby relieving some of the funding pressure on current sources. The alternative is to leave the growing numbers of less mobile people in our communities to suffer.
Lisa Melinda Barry is a director of SSL Scotland & SSL Access
