NHS plan to see funds allocated to social care — UK Health secretary

(Alliance News) - The forthcoming plan to fix the National Health Service will see funds ...

Alliance News 24 March, 2025 | 9:11AM
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(Alliance News) - The forthcoming plan to fix the National Health Service will see funds allocated to social care, the UK Health secretary has suggested.

Wes Streeting said spending NHS resources "more effectively though social care" will be better for patients and deliver better value for taxpayers.

At present, social care is most often paid for by councils, but thousands of people at any one time are stuck in NHS hospital beds even though they are fit to be discharged.

This is because of delays in arranging social care in local communities, finding spaces in care homes or difficulties in arranging other care.

At any one time, around one in seven hospital beds are taken up by people who could be cared for elsewhere.

Inadequate social care in the community also puts pressure on the NHS, such as through increasing hospital admissions and GP visits.

Speaking to the BBC's Panorama programme, Streeting suggested he will increase NHS spending on social care but did not say by how much.

He said: "I want to spend more of our resources through social care because it delivers better outcomes for patients and better value for taxpayers.

"So I'm convinced that we can spend NHS resources more effectively through social care."

On the figures involved, he said: "Well, these sorts of discussions are always subject to spending reviews, but the 10 year plan for health will include elements of social care, because the two do have to go hand in hand together."

Streeting also repeated his belief that the NHS is "also not all about money".

He said that "you can't just keep on pouring ever increasing amounts of taxpayers' money into a system that is not set up to deliver best use of that money and best care for patients and that's why the system needs to change".

The forthcoming 10 year plan for the NHS will focus on the "three shifts" the government says are needed – moving NHS services towards more community-based care, preventing people getting ill in the first place and better use of digital technology.

By Jane Kirby, PA Health Editor

Press Association: News

source: PA

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