New Health for Care coalition warns Government that care services are on brink of collapse – Alzheimer’s Society comments
The Health for Care coalition, a new group of health organisations, led by the NHS Confederation is urging the Government to act to rescue the social care system. Millions of vulnerable people are being deprived of the care and support they need because of the Government’s failure to grasp the crisis in social care, with services in parts of the country near collapse.
In a letter to the Prime Minister the Coalition point out that at least 1.4 million older people in England in need now receive no help because the social care system is failing.
Alzheimer’s Society is a signatory on the letter through its membership of the Richmond Group - a collaboration of 14 health and social care organisations in the voluntary sector.
Jeremy Hughes, Chief Executive at Alzheimer’s Society, says: “This unified call from the health sector for better social care hammers home just how interdependent the two systems are.
“People with dementia are the principal victims of this social care catastrophe. Our country is failing them utterly. Through our Fix Dementia Care campaign, we hear from people stuck on hospital wards for over a year waiting for a care home place to become available, having to deal with a revolving door of home care staff with little or no dementia training, and footing sky high bills – sometimes costing more than their home - to pay for their care. It shouldn’t, and needn’t, be like this.
“Every day we wait for the Government’s promised plan to reform social care, the number of people with dementia needing care increases, care services are stretching to breaking point, and vulnerable people are suffering. What’s urgently needed is for the NHS to cover the extra costs people with dementia are charged for their specialist care, as well as bold reform and significant investment from Government for a proper long term solution.”
