Our response to the Autumn budget

CHS Healthcare welcomes the government’s focus on additional funding for the NHS and social care system in last Thursday’s budget.

With so much pressure on the system it is encouraging to see that the Chancellor has announced the NHS will receive £3.3bn in 2023/24 and a further £3.3bn in 2024/25, and social care will receive up to £2.8bn in 2023/24 & £4.7 billion in 2024/25.

It is also encouraging that the details of the adult social care discharge fund have been announced following Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Steve Barclay’s speech at the NHS Providers conference last week. The funding will be distributed through the Better Care Fund and is allocated specifically to help with hospital discharge into care settings. In his speech Steve Barclay also highlighted how local areas will be able to decide how their funding is spent depending on the needs of their population and encouraged attributing the funding to innovative solutions.

This additional funding will provide essential support to struggling trusts and will enable more resource to be put toward freeing up hospital capacity and discharging patients to a more suitable care setting.

But to truly tackle delayed discharge, we need to understand the root causes and look at the entire patient pathway. This funding gives extra breathing space to re-evaluate the hospital discharge operating model and address the causes of poor patient flow rather than taking a tactical, short term approach. Only a redesigned system built on collaboration between healthcare, social care, families and private providers, will future-proof discharge processes and strengthen the future of the NHS.

For more information on the work CHS Healthcare has been doing to understand and unlock patient flow visit: https://chshealthcare.co.uk/the-key-to-unlocking-patient-flow/