NHS Continuing Healthcare
Fast Track CHC Explained
How Fast Track NHS Continuing Healthcare works for rapidly deteriorating conditions, and how quickly funding should be put in place.
What is Fast Track CHC?
Fast Track is a route to NHS Continuing Healthcare funding for people with a rapidly deteriorating condition that may be entering a terminal phase. Instead of a Checklist and a Decision Support Tool, an appropriate clinician completes a Fast Track Pathway Tool. On the strength of that, the Integrated Care Board should put funding in place urgently, so that care can be arranged without delay.
Plain English
For families and professionals
England and Wales
National coverage
Registered professionals
Written and reviewed
Fast Track exists for the situations where there is no time for the ordinary process. Where someone has a rapidly deteriorating condition that may be entering a terminal phase, funding can be put in place within days rather than weeks, and any review happens afterwards. Knowing how it works, and insisting it is used when it should be, can spare a family a fight at the worst possible moment.
When Fast Track should be used
Fast Track is appropriate where:
- A condition is deteriorating quickly and may be entering a terminal phase
- Waiting for the standard process would leave needs unmet
- An appropriate clinician supports urgent funding
- Care needs to be arranged now, with any review to follow
How to move it forward
If Fast Track may apply, a few steps help it happen quickly:
- Ask the clinician who knows the person best whether Fast Track is appropriate
- Make sure the Pathway Tool describes the deterioration clearly
- Confirm the Integrated Care Board has received the completed tool, in writing
- Press for funding to be put in place, with any review to follow
- Challenge delay or a request to complete the standard process instead
Where people often go wrong
- Being told to wait for a Checklist when Fast Track clearly applies
- A Pathway Tool that understates how quickly the condition is changing
- Funding held up pending a review that should have come afterwards
- Assuming Fast Track needs a fixed prognosis in weeks, which it does not
- Not confirming the Board received the tool, so it sits unactioned
- Being told to wait for a Checklist when Fast Track clearly applies
- A Pathway Tool that understates how quickly the condition is changing
- Funding held up pending a review that should have come afterwards
- Assuming Fast Track needs a fixed prognosis in weeks, which it does not
- Not confirming the Board received the tool, so it sits unactioned
Who completes the Pathway Tool
The Fast Track Pathway Tool must be completed by an appropriate clinician, meaning a doctor or registered nurse responsible for the person's diagnosis, care or treatment. That is often a GP, a hospital consultant, a community nurse or a hospice clinician. The tool asks the clinician to describe the rapidly deteriorating condition and why it may be entering a terminal phase. It is a clinical judgement, and it does not require the person to be within a fixed number of weeks of the end of life.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who can complete a Fast Track Pathway Tool?
An appropriate clinician, meaning a doctor or registered nurse responsible for the person's diagnosis, care or treatment. That is often a GP, hospital consultant, community nurse or hospice clinician.
How quickly should funding be in place?
National guidance expects the Integrated Care Board to act within forty-eight hours of receiving a completed tool. Any review of eligibility should follow afterwards, not delay the funding.
Does Fast Track need a set life expectancy?
No. It is based on a rapidly deteriorating condition that may be entering a terminal phase, which is a clinical judgement rather than a fixed number of weeks.
What happens after Fast Track funding starts?
The person's needs are kept under review. If their condition stabilises over time, eligibility can be reconsidered through the standard process, but only after care is in place.
This page explains Fast Track NHS Continuing Healthcare in England. It is general information rather than legal advice, and it does not replace an assessment of an individual's needs.