Joint Approach Aims To Help Lives Of The Elderly

Health and council chiefs have revealed new aims to improve the quality of life for the elderly. Cambridgeshire County Council and the county’s primary care trust (PCT) work together to provide social and medical care to the elderly.

This region was the first in the country to see local government and health services teaming up to provide care. It has a combined workforce of 1,000 and a budget of £120 million.

Ian Stewart, outgoing chief executive of the council, said the authority and PCT were committed to further changes to build on the success of the last few years. The priorities of the scheme are to support more people living at home, reduce the number of older people living in residential care and to create  community-based services to prevent unnecessary hospital visits.

Mr Stewart said: “I think integration means improving customer service to make it more accessible. Customers like the shared service. They like the idea they can go to a GP and they can see a health care professional and they can see social care staff as well. They do not have to go to three or four buildings to get those services. I think this model will roll out nationally in the next few years.”

The pressure on social services is likely to increase as the needs of an ageing population is felt more acutely in Cambridgeshire. A set of “ambitions” has been introduced to provide services to meet the growing need.

Those include working to ensure 16 households per 1,000 of the population aged 65 and over receive intensive home care. Another is to help at least 65 people per 1,000 aged 65 and over to continue living at home. It also aims to reduce the time taken to provide care packages after assessment and cut waiting times for occupational therapy assessment.

Chris Banks, the newly installed chief executive of the recently formed Cambridgeshire Primary Care Trust, said: “The challenge for the PCT and the county council is how to adapt to the changing demographics in the region. We have a budget, and there are access problems as we know. The issue is how we can get the service as responsive as we can. I think by working together with the county council we can meet the targets we have set.”