Fund social care now to address bed demand say NHS leaders

Responding to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) report ‘Beds in the NHS’ which shows 13,000 more staffed beds are required across the UK, Rory Deighton, Acute Lead at the NHS Confederation said:

“This report lays bare the scale of the challenge the NHS is facing in terms of capacity and workforce.

“NHS leaders see first hand that capacity in Urgent and Emergency Care and ambulance services can simply not cope with the level of pressure we are seeing in the whole system.

“Our members need to see a fully-funded, long-term plan for the health and social care workforce and investment now in social care to improve flow and ensure those patients medically fit for discharge can be returned to the community where there needs can be better met. It is only with these additional measures that the NHS can operate as a resilient and sustainable system that can move through the elective backlog as efficiently as possible and provide the best possible care.

“In the context of the cost of living crisis, Government must increase pay for the lowest paid staff in the NHS and social care workers to ensure maximum possible retention in the face of competitive pay in other sectors like retail and hospitality in a challenging job market.”