Country Correspondent: Molly Fitzgerald
Jeremy Hunt, former Health Secretary, and Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England, have backed a government proposal that would give around 350,000 additional people with mental health conditions and physical disabilities access to personalized health and social budgets. Personalized NHS budgets allow patients or their guardians to determine how to allocate funds — potentially tens of thousands of pounds per person — between health care and social care services. Services could include home care for patients or respite care for family caregivers. Currently, 23,000 people in England already have personalized NHS budgets.
