Anne Main MP presses for better health deal
1st December 2010
Following a meeting with the management of NHS Hertfordshire yesterday, Anne Main challenged the Secretary of State for Health, Rt Hon Andrew Lansley MP, to outline what would be done to improve the transition of care for the elderly who leave hospital, needing ongoing care.
During the Secretary of State’s statement, Anne said:
“In St Albans we are lucky that people live for quite a long time, but often elderly care packages are not put in place to allow elderly care patients to come out of hospital and into adult social care services. Will the proposals in the White Paper to give local government more control help to ease this problem?”
The Secretary of State responded, outlining the Government’s commitment to support local authorities in the delivery of adult social care responsibility, particularly through the integration of health and social care*.
Speaking afterwards, Anne said:
“Too often, my postbag is full of cases where care packages are not put in place to allow elderly people to make the transition from hospital to a place where they can receive proper care, and we all want to make sure that that this is improved. It is welcome that the Government has made a firm commitment to integration of health and social care, and to have greater involvement for local authorities in the delivery of public health.
“The opportunity to raise this came immediately after my meeting with Stuart Bloom and Dr Jane Halpin of NHS Hertfordshire, where a range of issues about the future of health care provision were discussed. At that meeting, I reiterated how angry local people were over the cancelled Urgent Care Centre. It was made clear to me that the decision was final. They told me that those Urgent Care Centre pilots that went ahead under the last Government, such as Cheshunt, are proving to be an unaffordable model, and are now under threat.
“Bearing in mind the lack of a new Urgent Care Centre, I urged Dr Halpin to ensure that we see improvements in access to those facilities that already exist, and better access to the enhanced facilities which are coming to the QE2 Hospital in Welwyn Garden City. I also asked her to investigate better parking at St Albans City Hospital and have written to her to today to stress this point.”
FULL TEXT
Mrs Anne Main (St Albans) (Con): In St Albans we are lucky that people live for quite a long time, but often elderly care packages are not put in place to allow elderly care patients to come out of hospital and into adult social care services. Will the proposals in the White Paper to give local government more control help to ease this problem?
Mr Lansley: As my hon. Friend may know, we are acting already. Through the spending review we have made very clear the NHS commitment to support local authorities in the delivery of adult social care responsibility, particularly through the integration of health and social care. That includes £70 million this year for re-ablement, £150 million in the next financial year for more re-ablement activity and nearly £650 million in the next financial year in direct support from the NHS for preventive and other activities to support social care. That will make a big difference to her constituents.
