The Tory Government has confirmed that some 3,000 hospital patients will be moved into care homes, private hospitals and even hospices over the coming weeks to ease the ever-mounting pressure on the NHS.
In a statement read to Parliament today, Health Secretary Steve Barclay confirmed the roll out of the emergency plan to free up an abundance of hospital beds - blaming a surge in flu cases across England for the creation of the contingency.
He admitted: "I and the Government regret the experience for some patients and staff in emergency care has not been acceptable in recent weeks."
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The Mirror reports that however, that he was blasted by council leaders for announcing 'tacked-on' funding - and making a winter emergency plan midway through winter. The £200million pot that will fund the plan is having to be taken from existing Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) budgets.
Local councils will be given allocations of how many beds need to be 'block-booked' in community settings - but the allocations and funding per area have not yet been confirmed. It’s thought there will be a further update in the coming days.
Separately, the CQC watchdog will cut its number of inspections to free up staff on the frontline, and there will be more focus on 'virtual wards' treating people at home. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was forced to deny the Government left it too late to take action - as experts fear the £200m pot to ease the NHS crisis will flop because of a lack of staff.
Visiting a community health centre in Leeds, the PM said: "Actually, months ago the Government announced £0.5billion in extra funding to speed up the discharge of people into their communities or back home, where that makes sense. Today's announcement is for even more funding to help support those initiatives."
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the winter plan in January was 'too little too late' and the 'collapse could be seen coming from a mile away'. Speaking to MPs, he said: “The NHS is in crisis - the biggest crisis in its history, the only people who can’t see it are the government.
“What has been announced today is yet another sticking plaster when the NHS needs fundamental reform.”
Mr Streeting pointed out talks with NHS unions today had broken up after just '45 minutes of lip service' adding: “If patients suffer further strike action, they will know exactly who to blame. The PM might not rely on the NHS but millions of ordinary people do.
"They are sick and tired of waiting.”
Royal College of Nursing England director Patricia Marquis added: “The lack of beds in social care isn't really the problem, it's the lack of staff. Without investment in staff, providing more facilities - whether it's more beds in care homes or hospitals - won't make a difference.
“Nursing staff are leaving the profession in their droves and pay is a key factor. To halt the exodus, ministers must pay them fairly."
The funding will be used to buy placements in community settings, such as care homes, hospices, or independent sector hospitals, of up to four weeks per patient until the end of March. Downing Street said the funding should initially create at least 3,000 new places, and could later create more - as 13,000 people are in hospital beds in England that could be discharged into the community.
Care England chief executive Professor Martin Green: "A lot of the challenges we face are because successive governments have failed to find a proper approach to social care. What we're seeing now is the fact that people are going into crisis and then going into hospital.
“So what this new money might do is it might alleviate an immediate problem but it will not get to the long-term root cause of the issues."
Mr Barclay said this has been the 'worst flu season for 10 years' and flu season 'came early and came quickly', hitting in November. He said this time last year there were just 50 people in hospitals with flu, while this week there are 5,100.
"The timing of our flu season has combined with high levels of Covid admissions in hospital and the pandemic legacy of high delayed discharges to put real strain on frontlines services,” he said. He also admitted emergency departments were 'too congested' and more had to be done now.
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