Care UK welcomes Government proposals for investment in joining up health and social care services

COLCHESTER, U.K. - June 27, 2013 - PRLog -- As far back as 2011, Care UK was calling on the Government to do more to join up health and social care services. At the time Chief Executive Mike Parish talked about how hospitals are often not the best places for people with dementia and added: “We need to develop a system of more integrated care pathways that move away from the present model of reactive and last minute healthcare to more planned and preventative care.”

Welcoming yesterday’s announcement Mike added a note of caution: “The spending review has also frozen council tax and imposed a 10 percent cut in the resource budget for local authorities. Council’s are already struggling to meet the growing demand for social care services; we’re seeing first-hand how the tighter eligibility criteria for support is making life tougher and more isolated for many, many older people. These cuts are going to make that situation worse so the £3 billion investment, when it arrives, is going to have a lot of ground to make up before it starts improving the situation for some of our most vulnerable members of society.”

Many of Care UK’s homes for older people are already working with local authorities and NHS teams to provide intermediate care services, also referred to as step-up and step-down services which ensure that people can receive the right support and treatment to recover, recuperate and regain their strength and mobility in a care home rather than a hospital bed before returning to their own home.

Mike concluded:  “As always, the devil is in the detail and we look forward to finding out more about how local authorities and the NHS will solve this long running challenge.”