Today, new Health and Social Care Secretary Thérèse Coffey announced the government’s plan for coping with winter pressures, titled ‘Our Plan for Patients’.
Key to the plan is a £500m social care discharge fund which can be used flexibly by local health and care systems to help people who need further support out of hospitals and into social care. At CHS Healthcare we welcome this funding announcement, but the devil will be in the detail. We look forward to finding out more about how this will be rolled out.
Also key to the plan is a call on the general public to participate in a national endeavour to support the health and social care system. One of the key collaborators in effective discharge is family members and next of kin, so we support this drive to increase family engagement with health and social care services. Our recent survey showed that involving families earlier in the discharge process can lead to more effective discharge and reduce delays. 92% of staff agreed that engaging with the patient’s family and carers early on makes a successful discharge. If we can increase this engagement as part of a national drive to get the general public more involved with help, it could have significant benefit.
As originally seen on LinkedIn