Health and Care Integration 2022-04-19
2022-04-19
TAGS
Response quality
Questions & Answers
Q1
Direct Answer
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Context
The integration of NHS and local government care services is under discussion.
What steps are being taken to ensure that health and care services are well integrated?
We have published an integration White Paper drawing on pandemic experience, created integrated care partnerships like those in mid-Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire, showing how we can bring together health and local social care services.
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Q2
Direct Answer
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Context
The discharge fund is set to end as covid regulations come to an end, leaving local authorities vulnerable in the absence of formal procedures to pass funding from the NHS to local government services.
Will my right hon. Friend assure me that where local authorities seek to tackle hospital backlogs they will have access to appropriate funding?
I can give the assurance requested. We are already putting in record funding and the plan set out earlier this month will make a real difference by integrating NHS and local authority care services.
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Q3
Direct Answer
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Context
The importance of local government in ensuring efficient use of resources through the joint delivery of services.
Can he assure me that the central role of local government in integrating health and social care services will continue? Will adult social care be taken over by the NHS?
I am pleased to give that assurance. The White Paper signals our intention to go further and faster on health and care integration, ensuring overall responsibility is shared between local authorities and the NHS.
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Q4
Partial Answer
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Walsall Manor Hospital has been merged with the Royal Wolverhampton without local consultation, raising concerns about integration.
How can integration take place when Walsall Manor does not have a full-time chief executive? Will the Secretary of State ensure that Walsall Manor gets its own chief executive?
My understanding is that what is happening in her area is about a shared management team that shares best practice and tries to address challenges together, rather than any kind of formal merger.
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Assessment & feedback
Ensuring Walsall Manor has its own chief executive for integration was not directly addressed
Response accuracy
Q5
Partial Answer
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Context
Tens of thousands of patients are fit to leave hospital but cannot due to lack of social care, calling for local health leaders to drive this issue urgently.
Will the Secretary of State concede that local health leaders should be driving the resolution of this issue locally as a matter of urgency?
The new integrated care systems are all about it. My understanding is that the hon. Gentleman sat on the Health and Care Public Bill Committee which made this a reality.
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Assessment & feedback
Conceding urgency of local health leaders' action was not directly addressed
Response accuracy
Q6
Partial Answer
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Context
More than 20,000 patients fit to leave hospital but cannot be discharged; more than 22,000 waiting over 12 hours in A&E; heart attack and stroke victims wait an hour for ambulances. The Government's failure to fix the social care crisis causes huge pressures on the NHS.
Is it not the case that after a decade of underinvestment in the NHS, a failure to fix social care and the absence of a plan even to address staffing challenges, we have a permanent crisis?
That is not the case at all. The NHS and social care face unprecedented pressure because of the pandemic; staff absences are higher than normal times but the NHS is providing support with record funding for both NHS and adult social care.
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Assessment & feedback
Conceding a permanent crisis due to underinvestment was not addressed, instead citing the pandemic as cause
Citing The Pandemic As The Main Cause
Response accuracy
Q7
Direct Answer
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Context
Working with local authorities and GP services to increase face-to-face GP appointments.
What action is being taken by the Government to ensure that people in east Lancashire can see their general practitioner face to face?
My right hon. Friend is right to raise the issue. We have measures like the £250 million access fund announced a few months ago, which should help improve face-to-face access as we move past the pandemic peak.
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Q8
Partial Answer
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The Scottish Government has improved terms and conditions for care workers through national pay bargaining, attracting more people to the social care career. This contrasts with England and Wales where staff are paid less.
Integration and service improvement cannot be delivered without sufficient staff, and the only way to attract people to a career in social care is by valuing them. In Scotland, they are already paid better than those in England and Wales, and through the national care service the Scottish Government will improve terms and conditions for care workers, through the introduction of national pay bargaining. Have the UK Government considered following the Scottish Government's approach and commitments?
Integration between the NHS and social care requires the right level and quality of workforce, both in the NHS and in adult social care. In the NHS in England, we have more doctors and nurses—more people working than ever before. In adult social care, we are recruiting at high levels, not least because of the huge recruitment campaign we ran with the sector, and some of the other changes we made, including the £400 million-plus of retention funding over the winter period. In addition, the support for the workforce more generally is making a real difference.
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Assessment & feedback
Did not address whether UK Government has considered adopting Scottish approach or national pay bargaining specifically.
Discussed Recruitment And Funding In General
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Q9
Partial Answer
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Context
In north Northamptonshire, integration is progressing well under Councillor Helen Harrison's leadership. However, there are concerns that the NHS might overwhelm local government in such partnerships.
In north Northamptonshire, integration is getting on very well, with Councillor Helen Harrison heading the adult social services. However, going back to what my hon. Friend the Member for Northampton South (Andrew Lewer) said, there is the worry that because the NHS is so big it will overwhelm local government. I have told the Secretary of State that they do not want to mess with Helen Harrison, but can he ensure that there is a mechanism for reviewing that?
I know that my hon. Friend knows Helen Harrison extremely well, but he is right to talk about the importance of the NHS and the adult social care sector and local authorities working together. We must make sure that it is a true partnership, where one does not overwhelm the other and they work together towards their shared interests.
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Assessment & feedback
Did not specify a mechanism for review as requested.
Emphasised Importance Of Partnership Without Addressing Review Mechanisms
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Q10
Partial Answer
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Context
There are urgent care crises in Shropshire, specifically at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, where medically fit patients cannot be discharged into community social care due to insufficient resources.
One key cause of the urgent care crisis in Shropshire, in the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, is the inability to discharge patients who are medically fit to go home into social care in the community. Shropshire Council's resource challenges in that area are well known. Will the Secretary of State commit to putting extra resource into social care in Shropshire so that the medically fit can be discharged into the community when they are ready?
The hon. Lady is absolutely right to raise this issue, and the whole House heard just before the recess the results of the independent work done by Donna Ockenden. The hon. Lady is right to talk about that and the pressure that has been faced locally. I understand that she has already reached out to my hon. Friend the Minister for Health and that he will be meeting her to discuss just that.
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Assessment & feedback
Did not commit to additional resources specifically, only mentioned a meeting would take place.
Acknowledged Issue But Did Not Provide Commitment
Response accuracy