Tag Archives: health and social care

Duncan Brack

Demand Better: Liberal Democrat Priorities for a Better Britain

By Duncan Brack | Thu 30th August 2018 - 12:38 pm

For as long as I’ve been active in politics people have complained they don’t know what we stand for. We may have a reasonable profile for our position on Brexit, but the fact that we’re only the fourth party in terms of MPs makes it even more difficult than usual to gain media attention.

On top of that, the party has more than doubled in size over the last two and a half years, so we have a large number of new or newish members who aren’t as familiar as many of us with the details of party policy or our key priorities for action.

So over the last six months the Federal Policy Committee has worked to produce the paper Demand Better: Liberal Democrat Priorities for a Better Britain, which is available here and will be debated at our autumn conference at Brighton.

We’ve written the paper in close cooperation with the party’s campaigns and communications committees and staff, and we’re using the party’s new slogan as the paper’s title. Demand Better summarises the Liberal Democrat approach to politics in 2018 and highlights our key policy priorities. Should a general election take place in the next year or so, it will provide the core of the Liberal Democrat election manifesto.

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Howard Sykes

Social care is in crisis – the Tories must face up to it

By Howard Sykes | Mon 6th August 2018 - 1:55 pm

In the last six months, more than one hundred home-based and residential care providers have ceased trading, affecting more than 5,300 people, as providers hand back contracts to more than sixty councils, affecting thousands of people. Social care faces a £3.5bn funding gap by 2025. Social care is in crisis and we have a government which is turning a blind eye to it.

Obsessed with Brexit, they have repeatedly ignored the challenge of social care and kicked it into the long grass. A long-delayed green paper on social care that was promised for June has yet again failed to materialise, along …

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Posted in Local government and Op-eds | 19 Comments
Kirsten Johnson

The Learning Disabilities Mortality Review Annual Report

By Kirsten Johnson | Thu 10th May 2018 - 12:22 pm

The Learning Disabilities Mortality Review Annual Report was published recently by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership. In it are harrowing statistics of people with learning disabilities dying far too young.

The report highlights the extraordinarily high incidences of preventable death. The Connor Sparrowhawk case has brought this to public attention recently: a young man with learning difficulties left in a bath unattended, he drowned whilst having an epileptic fit.

Between July 2016 and November 2017, 1311 deaths were put forward for review, often by a Learning Disability Nurse. Of those, 27% …

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Kirsten Johnson

New report out shows more paediatric consultants needed

By Kirsten Johnson | Thu 26th April 2018 - 8:15 am

As a mother of three, we have been to A & E more times than I would have liked and have had help from paediatricians and other consultants. The NHS is wonderful!

But sorely understaffed.

A report out today by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, “Facing the Future Audit 2017”, has recommended drastic increases in staff to meet need. Up to 752 more paediatric consultants are required across the UK: 520-554 in England; 84-110 in Scotland; 84–91 in Wales; and 30-31 in Northern Ireland.

There are clearly not enough paediatric consultants …

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NewsHound

Expert health panel calls for ringfenced health and care tax to replace National Insurance

By NewsHound | Mon 5th February 2018 - 8:15 am

A new tax earmarked solely for the NHS and social care is among the recommendations from a panel of 10 experts in a report on healthcare funding in England commissioned by the Liberal Democrats. This heavyweight report, Health and Social Care: Delivering a Secure Funding Future, will form the blueprint of the Liberal Democrats’ ongoing healthcare policy.

The panel, which includes former chief executives of NHS England, the Royal College of Nursing, and the Patients Association, concluded that the NHS in England needs a real terms funding increase of £4bn in 2018-19 and further real terms increases of £2.5bn in …

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The Voice

Our NHS needs money!

By The Voice | Thu 25th January 2018 - 12:45 pm

Vince has been talking about how we can properly fund the NHS in England and Wales.

 

The full LIb Dem plan is here. It includes five steps for rescuing health and social care services, with the long-term goal being to integrate health and social care into one seamless service with pooled budgets.

  1. An immediate 1p rise on the basic, higher and additional rates of Income Tax to raise £6 billion additional revenue which would be ringfenced to be spent only on NHS and social care services.
  2. Direct this additional investment to the

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged and | 80 Comments
The Voice

Economic Implications of Autumn Budget

By The Voice | Thu 23rd November 2017 - 8:30 am

Liberal Democrat Brexit Spokesperson Tom Brake commented:

“Instead of a bright future for Britain, Conservative plans will see a £65bn hit to tax receipts, slashed wages and higher borrowing.

The Government found £3bn to spend on Brexit, but nothing for our police or social care.

The Chancellor has completely failed to show the ambition needed to tackle the housing crisis, build the infrastructure the country needs or fix Universal Credit.”

And here is the breakdown of the economic costs:

1. £65bn hit to tax receipts: Tax receipts have been downgraded by £65.4 billion over the five-year period compare to …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , , and | 12 Comments

Integrating Physical and Mental Health

By Kirsten Johnson | Thu 9th November 2017 - 12:48 pm

There is a new initiative from the King’s Fund on integrating physical and mental health care. They are setting up an “Integrating Physical and Mental Health Care Learning Network”.

The King’s Fund learning networks provide an opportunity for peer-to-peer learning, challenge and information-sharing. Network members have the opportunity to work through local issues with colleagues facing similar challenges. External speakers will share insights on relevant topics, and the group will also draw on expertise from staff at the Fund, as well as our latest research and publications.

This follows on from their 2016 …

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Joan Walmsley

Baroness Joan Walmsley writes…Can’t we agree to agree on funding health and social care?

By Joan Walmsley | Thu 16th March 2017 - 3:03 pm

A sight that all of us will have seen since the Autumn is ambulances queuing at A & E and patients waiting on trolleys in hospital corridors. Some of us will have seen the situation at first hand, waiting with a relative or waiting for treatment. Bed occupancy has been dangerously high in many hospitals, with senior managers and doctors having to take decisions that, in some instances, are literally life or death.

Upsetting as these images are, they show only the tip of a very large iceberg that is threatening to sink an NHS and the social care system unable to cope with demand.

Three reports have been published this week which expose the crisis in other key services.

The Kings Fund’s report “Understanding NHS financial pressures: How are they affecting patient care?” looked at the impact on four services that rarely make the headlines: genito-urinary medicine (GUM) services; district nursing services; elective hip replacement services: and neonatal services. The report states:

The growing gap between demand for services and available resources means that staff are acting as shock absorbers, working longer hours and more intensely to protect patient care. ….
Our findings create a fundamental challenge to the direction of travel set out in the NHS five year forward view ……the NHS appears to be moving further away from its goal of strengthening community-based services and focusing on prevention, rather than making progress towards it.

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David Warren

Opinion: The Liberal Democrats are setting the agenda on health and social care

By David Warren | Fri 10th April 2015 - 8:51 am

As the General Election campaign gathers pace all parties are focusing on the future of our NHS and social care, but it is the Liberal Democrats who are setting the agenda.

The announcement of £8 billion of extra funding and thus the challenge to the two big parties to match it, has been met with stunned silence. Combine this with the proposal for a ‘Care Closer to Home Fund’ and you have a party leadership that is getting to grips with what needs to done in this important policy area.

Contrast this with Ed Miliband’s staggering ignorance evidenced by his promise to fund 5,000 extra care workers for the NHS.

Miliband clearly doesn’t realise that care workers are almost exclusively employed by private companies!

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David Fagleman

The Independent View: Mutuals can deliver the integration needed to save the NHS

By David Fagleman | Fri 9th May 2014 - 8:45 am

nhs sign lrgDelivering free at the point of use healthcare is rightly at the heart of the NHS. But faced with an ever-ageing population, a rise in long-term conditions and tight health budgets, radical reform is imperative to ensure the survival of our health system as we know it.

It is the rise in long-term conditions that is causing particular strain. Ranging from obesity and diabetes, to cancer and dementia, these complex and multivariate conditions affect 15 million patients in England and account for 70 per cent of total NHS spend. …

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Posted in The Independent View | 11 Comments
Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb writes… A year at the Department of Health

By Norman Lamb MP | Fri 18th October 2013 - 2:34 pm

Many of you who are councillors will know that yesterday was the first day of the annual National Children and Adult Services conference has been taking place these last three days. When I attended last year, I had only been in my role as Care Minister for a few weeks. Preparing for my speech this year, I was reflecting on quite how much we have achieved over the past twelve months.

In the past year, we have made significant progress in delivering some of the recommendations made by Andrew Dilnot on financing social care. We have launched the first NHS Mandate, enshrining …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 1 Comment
Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb MP writes… A pooled health and social care budget

By Norman Lamb MP | Fri 28th June 2013 - 3:53 pm

This week’s spending review settlement again guaranteed funding for the NHS with another increase in funding by £2.1bn in cash terms for 2015-16. But we know these are challenging times for the NHS and for care services. A&E departments are facing rising demand and local authorities are having to make tough decisions on care. That is why as part of the settlement we announced a £3.8bn pooled health and social care budget to join up care around people’s lives. It doesn’t matter who provides the care – what matters is that people get the care they need and they don’t …

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