Social Care: Ministers need to “get their act together” and complete review by end of the year
Responding to social sector leaders saying that social care can “ill afford” to wait three years for final decisions on reform, Liberal Democrat Care and Carers spokesperson Alison Bennett MP said:
It is blindingly obvious that social care has been in crisis for years and is now on the brink of collapse.
It is having unbearable consequences for patients, unpaid family carers and for the NHS as a whole as without a functioning social care sector the health service cannot function.
After years of shameful Conservative neglect, the time for delay has long since been over and patients cannot afford another bout of kicking the can down the road.
Yet, this is all Ministers have offered so far. They have failed to listen to warnings like these and unless they get their act together and complete this review by the end of the year patients will continue to suffer the consequences.
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4 Comments
Might the inefficient and callous management of the essential social care component of society, by the previous government, not have been one of neglect but one of considered and determined policy?
Might L D spokespersons use more incisive language in dealing with the present government, which is harmfully similar to the previous one?
Social care is obviously in need of some radical reform. Its relationship to the NHS is one area for debate. Some way needs to be found to create and then use capacity in this sector to free up acute beds in the NHS. It’s certainly cheaper to fund more beds here than build new hospitals.
“Social care is obviously in need of some radical reform. Its relationship to the NHS is one area for debate.”
Indeed, but different government departments – NHS and the local authority system – haven’t been talking to each other.
If many more people receiving social care due primarily to mobility problems could get their failing joints fixed by the NHS they might not need the social care.
True Nonconformistradical, so increasing capacity in our NHS by allowing patient transfers to care facilities when appropriate would be a win-win. One obstacle is the profit motive of care homes. I suspect NHS transfers are not profitable and this could be changed so that moving someone who no longer needs NHS care to an outside carer becomes a desirable objective for all parties.