County councillor welcomes health and social care reforms
The Staffordshire county councillor responsible for health and social care has welcomed calls for urgent reform of the system.
Cllr Matthew Ellis
Cllr Matthew Ellis, Cabinet Member for adult wellbeing, said that the work done in the county over the past 18 months has laid the foundations for improving quality of care – but admitted the underlying financial pressures are still a growing challenge.
He said: “We recognised two years ago that there needed to be changes to the way social care is delivered but reform of the wider healthcare system to join services up better is also crucial.
“An ageing population means demand for services will increase beyond the financial capacity available if we had done nothing. Financial reform is needed to ensure the system is fairer across social care support at home and those needing residential care.
“But the wider healthcare system must reform to utilise different types of care in community settings instead of the ‘often’ default stay in hospital when there’s no clinical need for it.”
It is estimated that the number of people over 65 in Staffordshire will increase by 45 per cent by 2025, with the increase in over 65s living with a disability rising by 93 per cent and those with dementia rising by 69 per cent. The number of younger adults with disabilities is also increasing.
Cllr Ellis continued: “The establishment of Staffordshire’s Health and Wellbeing Board provides a once in a generation opportunity to bring together more collaboratively the dozens of different health and care bodies in a way which has not been done before.
“The £3billion which sits around the HWB table can be used significantly better for the benefit of patients and the sustainability of the healthcare system in the face of potentially greater demands for services.
“Hospitals should be the place of last resort rather than first, unless there is a clinical need, and major advances in technology and clinical practice mean a home setting is often the safest place to be treated, particularly for some older people.
“Our work with GPs and other partners to improve health and social care in Staffordshire is continuing apace, and I welcome that this issue has been strongly recognised as one of national significance.”
Councillor Ellis has his own version of BC and AD namely BE and AE – Before Ellis and After Ellis.
His messianic qualities are so profound that surely the County Council must re-date its calendar.Nothing before he arrived in his Cabinet post in June 2009 worked in social care and health – even though the same excellent managers are there.
He even implied that Health Scrutiny hadn’t worked before that important date when he gave evidence to the Mid Staffs Inquiry (even though he had had very little to do with it). He likes to forget that he and his Tory and Lib Dem colleagues (they certainly don’t scrutinise any more at SCC so they must be colleagues) voted against the necessary changes to Social Care and Health services – and also, let’s not forget, he voted against the £19.1 million Labour invested in the service for our older people and disabled people. He’s not reopened a single care home and in fact he even closed one more recently! Respite charges for some service users has doubled as has the cost for meals on wheels, and social care services and they now charge for travel to day centres and so on. Joined up work with the Health Service and other bodies like the Fire Service were started under the Labour Administration and this has continued under the Coalition government. Governments need to grasp the nettle of the real cost of care for the elderly that gives them independence, dignity and security. All political parties must work for a consensus on this.
Steve you have hit the nail square on the head. There are some things that are bigger than point scoring, sound bite quick fixes, they transcend party politics and one of those issues is how the country looks after it’s old.
Governments have over the years promised us cradle to grave care and we have taken them to their word. I expect that after many years of paying my taxes, national insurance, VAT, rates (business and domestic)along with all the other stealth taxes along the way, they stick to their word, ditch the party line rhetoric which we can all see through and just get on with sorting out a mess that has the potential affect everyone.