Health and Social Care Integration

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 19 March 2015.

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Photo of Jim Hume Jim Hume Liberal Democrat

We have had a quite consensual debate. The extra £200 million, on top of the current £100 million to help with integration, has been welcomed by all sides. However, there has been some acknowledgement that there is work to be done. Of course, there will always be work to be done.

A lot has been said about the importance of incorporating all relevant stakeholders into the integration of health and social care. Providing enough support to communities, doctors and—very importantly—carers to achieve proper integration is a considerable task that from the very beginning must be planned down to the last detail. A key part of my Liberal Democrat amendment recognises that. We are happy also to support the Conservative amendment, which also reflects the need for stakeholder involvement.

I want to emphasize the importance of the integration of health and social care and its impact on our NHS, which members have acknowledged. As I said earlier, we know that there are concerns about the increasing pressures that the NHS is facing; the Royal College of Emergency Medicine expressed its grave concerns to me recently that the NHS is close to bending under the pressure of an increasing number of patients to care for, with resources not being in the right place at the right time. I want to make it clear to Sandra White and Bob Doris that I absolutely celebrate the fact that more and more older people are living active lives, but Paul Martin helped to clarify matters by saying that there is still pressure as a result of the ageing population. For the record, in 23 years I will be one of the 75-plussers.

Let us be clear. In the quarter from October to December 2014, nearly 170,000 bed days were lost due to delayed discharge patients. The majority of the beds—more than 100,000 bed days—were occupied by patients who were aged 75 and over. We know, however, that since 2010 geriatric beds have been cut by a third. There is an imbalance there: bedblocking and lack of beds are causing jams in our systems.

Too many people who are ready to go home are still in hospitals as we speak. In January this year, 3,000 patients were waiting to be discharged. The waits extend to more than six weeks, which is no good for patients or—very important—for staff morale.