Clegg Sets Out Elderly Care Plan
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has outlined a £2bn “care guarantee” plan for the elderly, as part of his proposals to reform the NHS.
{mosimage}He said the extra cash should fund a minimum level of care for all who need it, ending the “scandalous injustice” of having to spend life savings.
Mr Clegg also called for central NHS targets to be scrapped, saying the current system was “not good enough”.
Labour and the Tories have both recently announced NHS reform plans.
Lib Dem aides said changes to services for the elderly – to be put to the party’s spring conference in March – would reduce the need for people to sell their homes to pay for care.
Under the plans, elderly people could use their personal payments to fund “respite care to give a much needed break to their spouse”.
On a visit to Kingston-upon-Thames, south-west London, Mr Clegg said: “We are the first party with serious plans to end the punishing poverty which afflicts the many elderly people forced to pay for their personal care entirely out of their own pockets.
“We would introduce a personal care payment based on need, not on your ability to pay. It simply isn’t possible to be committed to a free and fair NHS without ending this scandalous injustice.”
Mr Clegg said he wanted to introduce directly elected local health boards, aimed at making NHS bosses more accountable.
He proposed giving patients more control over their own care, with the extension of direct payments and individual budgets to help people with chronic, long-term conditions, mental health problems and learning disabilities.
The Lib Dems say cancer patients should be advised by independent advocates on the best health and care options.
Mr Clegg said: “I am calling for a people’s health service which puts individuals in the driving seat of their own healthcare.
“Sixty years after it was founded, the NHS is in desperate need of a new direction. The battle for extra investment has largely been won, but the service we are getting is simply not good enough.
“Cancer survival is below the European average and health inequalities have widened under Labour. Many older people are not getting the personal care they so desperately require. We are letting down those most in need.
“The question is not ‘how much’, but ‘how we spend the money’ so that everyone gets the healthcare they need.”
Private plan
Mr Clegg, who became Lib Dem leader in December, has said NHS patients should have a guarantee of treatment within a specified time.
If that is not met, they should have private treatment, paid for by the NHS, he argues.
Two weeks ago Conservative leader David Cameron said he wanted his party to replace Labour as “the party of the NHS”.
He has overturned his party’s previous proposals to subside patients to go private and said he would set up an NHS constitution.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he wants a more “personalised” NHS with a bigger focus on prevention.
In a speech earlier this month, he said he wanted patients to see “the doctor you want at the time you want and the hospital you want”.
He has also signalled that he will also press ahead with an NHS Constitution.
Responding to Nick Clegg’s announcement of guaranteed free personal care for the elderly and wider use of individual budgets, Paul Cann, Director of Policy and External Relations at Help the Aged, said: “This Lib Dem policy package on social care is very attractive.
“Care is not cheap – and will become more expensive. Ensuring we have a fair and sustainable funding settlement is crucial to transforming our ailing social care system.
“Wider use of individual budgets and direct payments heralds a much needed shift towards a more personalised and accessible system.
“Radical reform to the creaking social care system is long overdue – and this requires political consensus.
“The Caring Choices coalition, in its report two weeks ago, showed how fifteen organisations concerned with social care see the framework for that consensus, and this policy package moves the debate forward in the same spirit.”
