This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
Health leaders urge Osborne to increase social care funding
Fourteen doctors’ leaders have written to Chancellor George Osborne, calling upon the government to allow more funding for social care, ahead of next week’s Budget.
The letter insisted that investing in social care was ‘vital to the success of the NHS’. However, the government claimed it had already given local authorities access of up to £3.5 billion for new funding for adult social care by 2019-20.
The letter was signed by a number of royal medical colleges and societies, including Clare Marx, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
The health leaders described health and social care as ‘two sides of the same coin’. The letter went on to warn about the impact of an underfunded social care system on the NHS, claiming patients fit to be discharged are unable to leave hospital because of lacking social support at home.
It added: "This impacts on our ability to provide timely treatment and meet treatment targets, risking patient well-being, and is ultimately detrimental to the economy through delayed returns to work.”
A spokesman for the Department of Health said it was essential that older and vulnerable people got the care they deserved.
He said: "That's why we have given local authorities access to up to £3.5 billion to spend on social care and councils will have almost £200 billion to spend on local services over the lifetime of this Parliament."
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