Over the next few months we will be sharing information on our campaign focus areas. Those topics we feel strongly about and are fighting for on behalf of our members. This month we discussing social care, we shared with you earlier our call for the creation of a national social care service and the staffing issues impacting the sector.
However, it isn’t just about funding and staffing, there is a discord between the health and social care sectors, there needs to be better integration to ensure that they are working together and not against each other.
Workforce capacity issues in health and social care organisations make it difficult to discharge older patients from hospital effectively. In addition, while hospitals are financially incentivised to reduce discharge delays, there is no similar incentive for community health services and local authorities to improve the rate patients are discharged from hospital.
There needs to be closer working between health and social care services to relieve the financial burden on the NHS and ensure that patients receive the most appropriate care. This must be in conjunction with an increase in social care funding to increase places for older people outside of hospital.
As part of Later Life Ambitions we are calling for: A National Social Care Service integrated with a National Health Service that remains free at the point of delivery.
