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Hospital-built care homes too expensive, say experts Lord Carter suggests that NHS should build ‘step-down’ discharge facilities to reduce delays
Patients should have greater involvement in treatment plans A GUIDELINE to improve quality of life for older people with social care needs and multiple long-term conditions has been issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. The institute has called for health and social care services to work together more closely to ensure that people are involved NURSING OLDER PEOPLE
She added that the NHS could achieve a great deal in this area by working more closely with care homes, for example by supporting their staff. ‘It would be highly beneficial if current NHS services had more robust links with care homes in their areas, and viewed them as integral to health and social care regardless of their ownership,’ Ms Garrett said. Greater expense Registered Nursing Home Association chief executive officer Frank Ursell agreed. ‘An NHS care home could be more expensive to run than a typical Chris Moyse
By Nick Triggle ENCOURAGING HOSPITALS to build care homes will not prevent delays in hospital discharge, experts say. Care providers and nursing leaders questioned the involvement of hospitals in this way after Lord Carter, who is carrying out a productivity review of hospitals in England, suggested it would reduce delays. As the Labour peer unveiled his latest findings in October, he described hospital-built care homes as potential ‘step-down’ discharge facilities. Latest figures show that the number of delayed discharges has been rising. At the end of September, more than 5,000 patients occupying beds could have been discharged, according to NHS England data. In nearly one third of these cases, delays were due to a lack of available social care services; in the rest, delays were due to problems in the NHS. RCN professional lead for care of older people Dawne Garrett described Lord Carter’s suggestion as ‘refreshing’. However, she said it was important to recognise there was a difference between temporary rehabilitation facilities and care homes that should feel like ‘homely environments’.
Lord Carter in the House of Lords
in planning their care. The guideline includes specific recommendations for care homes, including making sure people are physically comfortable and have a choice of items to eat and drink during the day that meet their nutritional needs; and building links with local communities, encouraging interaction between residents and local people of all ages and backgrounds. It also supports the training of health and social care practitioners to help them develop the right skills and knowledge to do their jobs well.
independent care home,’ he said. ‘It would be unthinkable that the NHS might somehow go it alone on this one. The interests of patients, and the interests of the taxpayer, are best served by the independent sector working in partnership with the NHS.’ National Care Association chair Nadra Ahmed said that, while Lord Carter’s suggestion was ‘laudable’ and the social care sector could help, there is a lack of funding from local authorities for care home places. ‘There remains a critical shortfall in average council funding of about 8% for a typical care home placement,’ she said. ‘Until our sector is granted realistic funding there is a strong probability that the independent social care market will continue to shrink.’ The suggestion about care homes was made on the day Lord Carter set out more detail about his vision of how the NHS could save £5 billion by 2020. In the summer, he unveiled the overall target and has now set out how much individual specialties could save. The single biggest area for efficiencies was general medicine, at £381 million a year, followed by obstetrics and gynaecology, at £362 million, and trauma and orthopaedics, at £286 million. Lord Carter’s review covers a wide range of topics, from how rotas and annual leave are organised to infection rates, and variations in cost of common operations and treatments. He plans to give all 137 acute NHS trusts their own individual savings targets by the end of the year.
Six million people in England aged 60 and over have more than one long-term condition. British Geriatrics Society spokesperson Andrew Williams said: ‘This is important and timely new guidance. With increasing numbers of older people living with multiple long-term conditions, it is increasingly important that social care providers can recognise them and consider their impact when planning patients’ care needs.’ ■ See the guideline at www.nice.org.uk/ guidance/ng22 December 2015 | Volume 27 | Number 10
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Hospital-built care homes too expensive, say experts Lord Carter suggests that NHS should build ‘step-down’ discharge facilities to reduce delays
Patients should have greater involvement in treatment plans A GUIDELINE to improve quality of life for older people with social care needs and multiple long-term conditions has been issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. The institute has called for health and social care services to work together more closely to ensure that people are involved NURSING OLDER PEOPLE
She added that the NHS could achieve a great deal in this area by working more closely with care homes, for example by supporting their staff. ‘It would be highly beneficial if current NHS services had more robust links with care homes in their areas, and viewed them as integral to health and social care regardless of their ownership,’ Ms Garrett said. Greater expense Registered Nursing Home Association chief executive officer Frank Ursell agreed. ‘An NHS care home could be more expensive to run than a typical Chris Moyse
By Nick Triggle ENCOURAGING HOSPITALS to build care homes will not prevent delays in hospital discharge, experts say. Care providers and nursing leaders questioned the involvement of hospitals in this way after Lord Carter, who is carrying out a productivity review of hospitals in England, suggested it would reduce delays. As the Labour peer unveiled his latest findings in October, he described hospital-built care homes as potential ‘step-down’ discharge facilities. Latest figures show that the number of delayed discharges has been rising. At the end of September, more than 5,000 patients occupying beds could have been discharged, according to NHS England data. In nearly one third of these cases, delays were due to a lack of available social care services; in the rest, delays were due to problems in the NHS. RCN professional lead for care of older people Dawne Garrett described Lord Carter’s suggestion as ‘refreshing’. However, she said it was important to recognise there was a difference between temporary rehabilitation facilities and care homes that should feel like ‘homely environments’.
Lord Carter in the House of Lords
in planning their care. The guideline includes specific recommendations for care homes, including making sure people are physically comfortable and have a choice of items to eat and drink during the day that meet their nutritional needs; and building links with local communities, encouraging interaction between residents and local people of all ages and backgrounds. It also supports the training of health and social care practitioners to help them develop the right skills and knowledge to do their jobs well.
independent care home,’ he said. ‘It would be unthinkable that the NHS might somehow go it alone on this one. The interests of patients, and the interests of the taxpayer, are best served by the independent sector working in partnership with the NHS.’ National Care Association chair Nadra Ahmed said that, while Lord Carter’s suggestion was ‘laudable’ and the social care sector could help, there is a lack of funding from local authorities for care home places. ‘There remains a critical shortfall in average council funding of about 8% for a typical care home placement,’ she said. ‘Until our sector is granted realistic funding there is a strong probability that the independent social care market will continue to shrink.’ The suggestion about care homes was made on the day Lord Carter set out more detail about his vision of how the NHS could save £5 billion by 2020. In the summer, he unveiled the overall target and has now set out how much individual specialties could save. The single biggest area for efficiencies was general medicine, at £381 million a year, followed by obstetrics and gynaecology, at £362 million, and trauma and orthopaedics, at £286 million. Lord Carter’s review covers a wide range of topics, from how rotas and annual leave are organised to infection rates, and variations in cost of common operations and treatments. He plans to give all 137 acute NHS trusts their own individual savings targets by the end of the year.
Six million people in England aged 60 and over have more than one long-term condition. British Geriatrics Society spokesperson Andrew Williams said: ‘This is important and timely new guidance. With increasing numbers of older people living with multiple long-term conditions, it is increasingly important that social care providers can recognise them and consider their impact when planning patients’ care needs.’ ■ See the guideline at www.nice.org.uk/ guidance/ng22 December 2015 | Volume 27 | Number 10
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Dec 07, 2016. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2016 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
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