Patrick Hall – Fellow Social Care Policy
The problems of the NHS do not exist in a vacuum. Older people are getting caught between the cogs of a complex and under-resourced system that is struggling to offer the right care, in the right place and at the right time.
Hospitals are in the headlines again. NHS Providers, the body that represents NHS acute, ambulance, community and mental health services has warned that the NHS faces a deepening financial crisis. Indeed, our most recent Quarterly Monitoring Report found that NHS finances remain very fragile and that it would be premature to suggest that the financial pressures that have engulfed the NHS have eased.
The problems don’t stop there. For each month so far in 2016/17 there has been the equivalent of an additional 54,000 attendances at A&E and 14,200 admissions from A&E compared to the previous year. Key targets are being missed and the scale of these performance issues cannot be shrugged off as poor management. This is a systemic problem.
For full blog see The King’s Fund 15 September 2016