Sturgeon plans shake-up to improve care for elderly

Published on Friday 16 December 2011 02:54

The NHS and local authorities will share responsibility for care for the elderly to end the practice of budgets being shunted between departments.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said community health partnerships will be replaced by health and social care partnerships, to be the responsibility of both the NHS and councils.

The Scottish Government says it is concerned about the practice of “cost-shunting”, where disputes arise between NHS boards and local authorities over who should pay for the care of older people. The practice has seen people held up in hospital beds until the disputes are resolved.

Ms Sturgeon said: “There is too much inconsistency in the quality of care for adults and older people across Scotland. There is too much variation in the level of resources invested in care locally by health boards and local authorities, and in the outcomes that those resources achieve.

“Too many people are unnecessarily admitted to hospital or delayed there when they are clinically ready to leave hospital. And for too many people, the experience of moving between health and social care services is not smooth enough.”

She added: “We will introduce legislation to bring about a radical transformation of community health partnerships.

“[They] will be replaced by health and social care partnerships which will be the joint and equal responsibility of the NHS and local government.”

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Heinz Doofensmirtz

Friday, December 16, 2011 at 10:34 AM

Well I have to be honest and say this is one of the most sensible things to come out of Sturgeons mouth inn a long time. It is an open secret that CHP's are little more than a breeding ground for blue sky dreamers who have vastly inflated salaries and who have abused their budgets for their own ends with NI IMPROVEMENT WHATSOEVER in the health and well being of the people they serve. The fact of the matter is their own evaluations have provided a glittering array of success stories and improvements to peoples health. Yet when an external audit is carried out we elicit stats showing peoples over all health and wellbeing is deteriorating badly. The salaries they are on for providing a frankly pathyetic set of outcomes are eye watering and totally unjustified. The only people they have created better health and wellbeing for is themselves.

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Mulling Kintyre

Friday, December 16, 2011 at 08:57 AM

This is a good first step to sort out the scandal of budget shoving. However, it does need to recognise that support and care should be a part of the NHS and not left to the postcode lottery of local authority funding. A full blown professional care service for vulnerable adults and children, within the NHS, and subject to National funding would be a good second step in this process.

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swansojb

Friday, December 16, 2011 at 07:37 AM

The problem does not only apply to the elderly. It is a common theme over all hospital discharges and is not just NHS v Councils it is NHS area v NHS area & inter council as well.

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