NHS chief says social care should be ‘front of the queue’ for spare cash
Social care should be “front of the queue” for an injection of cash from the Government, the head of the NHS in England has said.
Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, agreed that a lack of social care provision is the “priority crisis” facing the NHS.
He said the knock-on effect of a deteriorating social care offer is now “unarguable”.
He also told the House of Lords NHS Sustainability committee: “If there were to be any extra money any time soon, then in my opinion, social care should be front of the queue because it is quite obvious that the knock-on consequences of a deteriorating social care offer – not only for vulnerable people, but also into hospitals – is now unarguable.
“I think there is a very strong case for some immediate support now.”
Lord Lipsey asked him: “Surely the most immediate, now crisis-level, problem is that there just isn’t enough social care.
“You’ve got 26% less people living at home supported by local authority carers. You’ve got 5,000 care home beds already lost in the last year and many more under threat.
“So more and more, you’ve got to put up people in your hospitals because there is nowhere else to go. Isn’t that the priority crisis that faces us over the next few years?”
Mr Stevens (pictured) replied: “Yes it is.”
Meanwhile, Mr Stevens was also quizzed on the obesity problem gripping the nation.
Lord McColl asked him: “We are in the middle of the worst epidemic for 97 years – the obesity epidemic – which is, as you know, causing huge increases in diabetes, dementia, heart disease, joint disease, cirrhosis of the liver and so on.
“The Department of Health’s contribution to this was to persistently maintain that all of the calories we eat is expended on exercise, which is totally untrue.
“How can we really get meaningful change in public health and prevention that will have a long-term effect? And what is preventing progress in shifting the system towards a more preventative model?”
Mr Stevens replied: “We have got this significant new health threat in the form of obesity, starting of course with childhood obesity and the well-known figure now that one in 10 children when they start primary school are obese, and one in five when they leave primary school are obese.
“So something is not working right for our children during those early years
“Obviously, there are a whole set of things that need to be got right in order to tackle that – some of them are things that require a regulatory response.
“And the Government’s affirmation that it is intending moving forward with a sugar levy to drive reformulation in the soft drinks sector is welcome together with the fact they’ve set a 20% target in the reduction for childhood obesity and if it become apparent that we are not on track for that then it will be unarguable that a wider range of actions are therefore needed.”
Lord McColl asked him: “We have a big, big problem with diet and the trouble is that the advice of the Department of Health and NICE – it is still persisting in the press and the media – they are still talking about diet and exercise. Exercise has very little to do with it. It is good for other things, but not for reducing obesity.”
Mr Stevens said: “My reading of the evidence is the same as yours, which is that it needs to be both and … we’re not going to deal with the pressures of obesity simply by arguing for greater exercise. We have got to change dietary intake.
“Of course, we have had some success over reformulation with salt over the course of the last decade or so – we have taken 15% of added salt out of our food since 2000.
“That has contributed to the improved hypertension and cardiovascular risk profile of the population, and on one estimate has saved the NHS £1.5 billion.
“So actually dealing with some of these broader population health risks is a key part of the medium to long-term of the sustainability of the NHS.”
Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2016, All Rights Reserved. Picture (c) Jonathan Brady / PA Wire.
