Health and Care system fails to shift balance

There has been no shift in the balance of care from hospitals to the community in the last three years, despite it being a major stated aim of the Scottish Government, according to new statistics.

While the number of people delayed from leaving hospital has reduced over the past quarter, with figures now at the lowest level for almost two years, figures also showed of the number of beds unavailable due to delayed discharge was over 150,000 in the first quarter of 2015. Of the total £4.8bn spent on health and social care in 2013-14, £1.45bn was spent on unplanned admissions by people aged over 65 to hospital.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said the Scottish Government was committed to a “whole system approach” which would lay the foundations for a system where more people will be treated at home or in a homely setting. Integrated health and social care boards have been established, £100m has been allocated to deal with delayed discharge, and £50m has been distributed to health boards as an unscheduled care fund.

 “There is still much work to do on both A&E performance and delayed discharge. However, we have put record funding and staffing in place and through the integration of health and social care we are committed to tackling these issues further. That means we have the strong foundations in place to ensure our NHS continues to deliver, quick, high quality care for the people of Scotland,” she said.

Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland Director, Theresa Fyffe, said the NHS was struggling to deliver what was a key national policy as part of the Government’s 2020 vision for the NHS.

“Plans for integration of health and social care across Scotland may go some way to address this but in a situation where demands on hospital care absorb much of any additional money that may enter the NHS, the new integration authorities will certainly have their work cut out in rebalancing services between hospitals and communities or creating any meaningful shift of services to the community,” she said.

Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman Jenny Marra said the NHS was falling short on every measure under the SNP.

“After eight years in government, there are now no more hiding places for the SNP Government. It was their decision to target our NHS for a deeper spending squeeze than even the Tories managed in England and now patients are waiting longer for treatment as a result,” she said.