Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, responds to today’s announcement by NHS England on plans to reduce long stays in hospital.
“We support the aim of reducing unnecessary time spent in hospital as long lengths of stay cause the health and mobility of older people to get worse. We want people to get the right care and support in the right place, which usually means in their own homes.
“With the help of some additional funding in 2017/18, councils worked hard with their partners to deliver a significant reduction in delayed transfers of care attributable to social care. Councils will wish to build on this to reduce overall length of stay in hospital. However, this will need sufficient continued funding, not only for social care but also for other NHS services outside hospital.
“We also look for action to reduce the need for people to be admitted to hospital in the first place, and are willing to play our part in achieving this if resources allow.
“To prevent the NHS winter crisis becoming an all-year-round crisis, government needs to address immediate pressures impacting on the system today as part of the funding gap in adult social care which is set to exceed £2 billion by 2020 and ensure its Green Paper provides a future-proof solution to the long-term sustainability of the sector.”