4 August 2026
SDLP Opposition Health Spokesperson Colin McGrath MLA has expressed serious concern after figures revealed that not a single applicant has been deemed eligible for Continuing Healthcare (CHC) funding across dozens of applications in recent years.
Continuing Healthcare is designed to provide fully funded care for individuals whose needs are primarily health-related. Unlike social care, it is not means-tested and is intended to ensure that people with significant and complex long-term health conditions receive the care they need without facing crippling financial costs.
The figures were provided in response to an Assembly Question tabled by Colin McGrath MLA and show that, despite numerous requests for CHC assessments across Health and Social Care Trusts over the last five years, no individuals were found eligible for Continuing Healthcare funding.
South Down MLA Colin McGrath said:
"These figures are staggering. Continuing Healthcare exists to support some of the sickest and most vulnerable people in our society, those living with complex healthcare needs arising from conditions such as advanced dementia and other serious long-term illnesses. Yet the reality is that not one person has been found eligible.
"The Department can point to the existence of a policy, but a policy that delivers zero successful applications is simply not working in practice. Families across Northern Ireland are making difficult decisions every day about the care of loved ones. Many are facing enormous financial pressures at what is already one of the most challenging periods of their lives. Continuing Healthcare was supposed to ensure that where someone's needs are healthcare needs, the state steps in and provides that care.
"If nobody qualifies, then we have to ask a very simple question, who exactly is this scheme for? We know there are people living with severe and complex healthcare conditions in every part of Northern Ireland. It simply defies common sense to suggest that not a single applicant met the threshold for support.
"A scheme with a zero per cent success rate does not inspire confidence. It raises fundamental questions about whether the eligibility criteria are being applied in a way that makes access practically impossible. Continuing Healthcare cannot be allowed to exist merely as a promise on paper. The Department of Health must explain why this scheme appears to be inaccessible and what action it intends to take to ensure it fulfils the purpose for which it was created."