Hunt supports call to build sheltered accommodation on hospital sites

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has supported calls to build sheltered accommodation on hospital sites.

Veteran Labour MP Mike Gapes made the suggestion after telling ministers there were currently 1.2 million older people with “unmet social care needs”.

The Ilford South MP, speaking during health questions in the Commons, said: “Isn’t it time that we thought about integration in a practical way?

“Where we have acute hospitals like King George Hospital in my constituency, where there is land next to it, that we start to build sheltered accommodation or intermediate care on the site so that people can easily be transferred into and out of the beds, freeing them up for other people who need it?”

Mr Hunt praised the “very wise suggestion”, telling MPs the Government was considering housing as part of its social care green paper.

He said: “Well I think that is a very wise suggestion and that is exactly the direction of our thinking in the social care green paper where there will be a significant chapter on housing.”

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