Don’t Leave Social Care Out Of The Equation | Letters

The NHS’s year-round infirmary overcrowding is not nan merchandise of a azygous failing, but nan consequence of 2 interdependent systems nether pressure: wellness and societal attraction (NHS corridor attraction now year-round situation successful England, experts say, 1 September). The government’s ambition to build an “NHS fresh for nan future” done prevention, neighbourhood services and integer devices is welcome, but this imagination risks treating symptoms alternatively than causes if societal attraction is near retired of nan equation.

Unless location is capable capacity successful community-based societal attraction to support group recovering astatine home, nan logjam will persist, and “corridor care” will stay a reality. The grounds is clear: timely finance successful organization services specified arsenic reablement and intermediate attraction prevents unnecessary admissions, speeds up safe discharges, and delivers beardown returns connected finance for nan NHS.

Reform is overdue. The authorities has group retired a roadmap for NHS transformation, but, pinch nan Casey committee not reporting until 2028, societal attraction betterment is still pending. By then, nan NHS betterment schedule will already beryllium years ahead, and nan disconnection betwixt nan 2 systems will person deepened. If ministers are superior astir relieving unit connected hospitals, they must dainty wellness and societal attraction arsenic adjacent partners. Social care is not optional to NHS recovery; it is cardinal to it.
Kathryn Marsden
Chief executive, Social Care Institute for Excellence