In a recent announcement, Mr Nigel Edwards, Head of the NHS Confederation warns that hospital beds in England may fill up with the elderly and vulnerable because of cuts to local authority social care funding.
Mr Edwards, said, “People who needed medical treatment may be denied a hospital bed as a result of the cuts.”
In response to Mr Edwards’s comments, The Department for health said, “That an extra £2bn was being allocated to protect social care.”
Under Chancellor George Osborne’s spending review, health spending was ring-fenced. However, councils in England are facing a 27% cut in central government funding over the next four years.
Mr Edwards went on further to add, “The £2bn interim solution to social care funding announced in the spending review would be a welcome relief to many, but the funding squeeze could still have a knock-on effect on the health service.”
“Less support from council services will quickly lead to increased pressure on emergency services and hospitals. Hospital beds will be blocked for those who badly need care because they support services the elderly require will not be available.”
“When it comes to the care of the most vulnerable in our society, it really is essential that the NHS and local authorities are in it together.”
The Department of Health spokeswoman said, “It understood that social care can impact on NHS demands. That’s why we are strengthening programmes like re-ablement and the 30-day re-admission tariff, which will integrate hospital care with care in the community. We have allocated an additional £2bn by 2014-15 – this extra boost, alongside an ambitious programme of efficiency, will ensure that there is enough funding available both to protect people’s access to services and deliver new approaches to improve quality and outcomes.”
“We expect local health and social care professionals will work together to ensure that the funding is spent on joint health and social care priorities and improve outcomes for everyone.”
Councillor David Rogers, from the Local Government Association, said, “The extra £2bn would not go very far. Of course that is very welcome, but as part of what councils said to the government before the spending review, there’s likely to be a gap over that same time of about £6bn.”
“So, there are still going to be difficulties. But I think that the important thing is to ensure that both councils and the NHS locally work increasingly close together to provide the best services to our residents.”
Critics of the spending review expressed concerns over whether the £2bn earmarked for social care, half of which is to come from a direct grant to local government, would reach its intended target.
Jennifer Dixon, Chief Executive of the Nuffield Trust think tank, said, “The reality is that local authority budgets will be stretched and funds for social care are not ring-fenced, so the extra £1bn per year is by no means certain.”
As the debate on the government’s spending review continues, MPP Locums understands the demands of our health care professionals as the NHS continues to come under review. At MPP Locums we provide doctor recruitment – general and specialist locum doctor jobs, medical jobs for NHS Trusts throughout the UK.
MPP Locums ensures that all doctors are vigorously checked before being placed in key roles. We provide quality staff to our clients and are regulated by the Care Quality Commission and the NHS Buying Solutions. MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum jobs to the NHS under the National Locum contract starting 1st July 2008 for the next three years.
If you are seeking NHS doctor jobs, doctor jobs, locum doctor jobs, special registrar jobs, SHO jobs contact our registration team by telephone or register on line and be part of the largest and fastest growing specialist medical recruitment agency in the UK.