Actions taken to mitigate pressures in health and social care
In their latest briefing for MSs and ministers, the Welsh NHS Confederation outlines key examples of the actions being taken by the NHS in Wales and local authorities to help manage and reduce the extraordinary pressures on the health and care system.
The tremendous pressure is severely impacting the ability of both the NHS and social care providers to continue delivering services that the people of Wales need and deserve.
The briefing shows many examples of actions taken across the health and care system, focusing on patient flow out of hospitals and into the community, freeing up much-needed capacity in our hospitals.
On behalf of leaders across the NHS in Wales, the Welsh NHS Confederation calls on Welsh Government to provide ring-fenced local authority allocations and sustainable, recurrent social care funding to support the investment of ‘upstream, out of hospital’ transformation and long-term service development.
Darren Hughes, director of the Welsh NHS Confederation, said:
“The NHS and social care systems are entirely reliant on our staff. The issues of limited capacity and high levels of staff vacancies in social care are having serious implications on the NHS’ ability to discharge large numbers of medically fit patients from hospital into appropriate care. There are currently over 1,000 patients in hospital in Wales who are medically fit and ready for discharge.
“Apart from the negative impact on the patients themselves and their outcomes, this also slows down the flow of patients through hospitals, affecting the care available for others. This has a knock-on effect on other services, including the Welsh Ambulance Service’s ability to provide effective and rapid responses and interventions, as well as non-urgent capacity and services.
“Whilst NHS leaders and social care partners are doing all they can to improve the situation by implementing solutions, there is only so much that can be done without long-term, sustainable, recurrent funding to recruit and develop a world class workforce for health and social care.”
