Burnham vows better deal for carers and ‘one team’ plan for health integration

By The Press Association25th September 2014News EnglandCarers, Integrated Care, News England, NHS, Social Care

Carers will be given better support if Labour wins next year with funding for breaks and annual health checks, shadow health secretary Andy Burnham has revealed.

In a key note address welcomed by a series of warm standing ovations, Mr Burnham detailed his vision for a new combined social care and health service at the party’s annual conference in Manchester.

He pledged to next year write to every household in England outlining the plans to ensure “one team” is in place to deal with all health needs.

And announcing the new package for carers, Mr Burnham said: “That is why I can announce today a big change in the way the NHS supports carers so they can keep going.

“No longer invisible but at the very centre of this new service.

“So today we announce new support for carers: protected funding for carer’s breaks; the right to ask for an annual health check; help with hospital car parking for carers; and we will go further.

“We will give all families the right to care in their home, if they want it.”

Mr Burnham said Labour would offer better support to the terminally ill, making it easier for them to die at home if they want to.

He told delegates: “A national health and care service truly there from cradle to grave – from a new right to have a home-birth and a right to be in your own home at the end of your life, surrounded by the people you love, with your care provided on the NHS and no worry about its cost – starting with those who are terminally ill with the greatest care needs.

“These are the things that matter and this is about an NHS there for you at the most important moments in life.”

Mr Burnham said he had made it his personal mission to rebuild the NHS a decade ago, revealing a personal story from his own family’s history of seeing his grandmother’s knuckle left red raw when a care home worker stole her engagement ring.

He said: “She was in a nursing home where corners were often cut and where it was hard to get GPs to visit. The decent people who worked there were let down by the anonymous owners who filled it with untrained, temporary staff.

“My gran’s things often went missing and we had got used to that but I will never forget the day when we walked in to see her and her knuckle was red raw where her engagement ring had been ripped off.

“Right there, right then – I made it my mission to end this scandal.”

He told the Manchester conference only Labour could be trusted to complete the service built by Nye Bevan.

He said: “My message is simple: Labour is with you; your worries are ours; we know things can be better than they are; we want an NHS that takes your worries away; and we can achieve it if we do something bold.

“That allows us to rebuild our NHS around you and your family, no longer ringing the council for this, the NHS for that.

“But one service, one team, one person to call. An NHS for the whole person, an NHS for carers, an NHS personal to you. At last, a National Health Service keeping you well, not a national sickness service picking up the pieces.

“And an end, once and for all, to the scandal that is care of older and vulnerable people in England in 2014.”

Janet Morrison, chief executive of Independent Age, said: “We welcome a vision of the NHS that would create an integrated health and social care system that’s fit to meet the needs of an ageing society. Since older people are the most frequent users of NHS services, better co-ordination of care at home and in hospital makes sense.

“We also welcome pledges to improve the lives of carers and free NHS care for the terminally ill.

“However we are concerned about the lack of a corresponding vision of how these plans will be paid for and put in place.”

Ellie Rose, public affairs manager at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “We welcome the plans announced today by the Labour Party, which would help to give every person with a terminal illness in this country the choice to die at home if they wish.

“Every day around 100 cancer patients die in expensive hospital beds when they wanted to be at home. This is both morally wrong and a scandalous waste of precious NHS resources.

“Making social care free to those at the end of life will be an important part of delivering this commitment.”

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “You can’t fund the NHS if you bankrupt the economy – which is exactly what Labour did. By taking tough decisions on public spending, we have been able to increase the NHS budget by £12.7 billion over the course of this Parliament, while sticking to our long-term economic plan.

“Once again at Labour conference the most important part of a speech was forgotten – Andy Burnham failed to apologise for, or even mention, the tragic events at Mid Staffs. We will only improve the NHS if we are honest about terrible problems which happened because of a target culture Labour have never taken responsibility for.”

Dr Maureen Baker, who chairs the Royal College of General Practitioners, said the professional body had “grave concerns” about Mr Burnham’s proposals to create hospital-led integrated care organisations.

She said: “His plans could destroy everything that is great and that our patients value about general practice and could lead to the demise of family doctoring as we know it.

“Only yesterday he criticised the expensive and time-consuming top-down reorganisation of the NHS as a result of the Health and Social Care Act.

“Yet his proposals would be just as disruptive, causing even more upheaval for patients and distracting doctors and managers away from what really matters – delivering excellent patient care.”

“Every day around 100 cancer patients die in expensive hospital beds when they wanted to be at home. This is both morally wrong and a scandalous waste of precious NHS resources.

“Making social care free to those at the end of life will be an important part of delivering this commitment.”