'Chronic underfunding' of social care increases burden on NHS, say GPs

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/13/chronic-underfunding-social-care-cuts-burden-nhs-gps

Version 0 of 1.

Nine out of 10 GPs believe deep cuts to social care under the coalition have added to the growing overcrowding at both their own surgeries and hospital A&E units.

In a poll of 830 family doctors in England, 92% did not think that enough social care is available to stop patients ending up in emergency departments or to avoid them having to stay in hospital despite being medically fit to leave.

Almost as many (88%) said big reductions to the social care that local councils are able to provide to older and disabled people have contributed to the pressure facing their surgeries.

The same number (88%) of GPs believe social care services, which are intended help people remain safe and well-supported at home, offer an inadequate level of care for their patients.

The Care and Support Alliance, which commissioned the poll, said “chronic underfunding” of social care had increased the burden on the NHS.

“The care system is on its knees. The message from GPs is clear – cuts to social care have directly led to extra pressure on primary care as well as huge challenges for hospitals,” said Richard Hawkes, the chair of the CSA, a group of more than 75 organisations working with old and disabled people receiving social care.

Councils in England claim £3.5bn has been taken out of the social care system since 2010 as a result of austerity-driven deep Whitehall cuts to many local authorities’ budgets. Some 500,000 people who would have received social care in 2009 no longer qualify for it, despite the ageing population, London School of Economics research has found.

“Chronic underfunding has left hundreds of thousands of older and disabled people, who need support to do the basics, like getting up or out of the house, cut out of the care system”, added Hawkes.

“People become isolated, can’t live on their own and slip into crisis. As this polling shows, the impact is now being felt throughout the health service, which is being forced to pick up the pieces.”

Dr Jon Orrell, a GP in Dorset, said: “The chronic underfunding of care combined with frozen health budgets means that my patients cannot get the health and social care support they need.”

Dr Maureen Baker, chair of the Royal College of GPs, welcomed the poll, which was undertaken by Medeconnect. “It would be misguided to think that funding cuts to one sector do not impact the other.”

Caroline Abrahams, Age UK’s charity director, said older people deprived of social care “are more likely to end up in their GP surgery or even in A&E because they have nowhere else to turn”.

A Department of Health spokesman insisted that “social care is a priority for this government. We have given an extra £1.1 billion to councils to help protect social care services this year on top of additional funding in recent years.”

Its £5.3bn-a-year Better Care Fund, which starts in April will improve health services outside hospitals and integrate health and social care, “should improve care for thousands of vulnerable people, preventing 160,000 emergency admissions and saving over half a billion pounds next year alone”, he added.

As well as this, the NHS’s patient watchdog warned on Friday that deaf, blind and wheelchair-bound people people are struggling to access appointments with GPs, dentists and opticians.

In a new report, Healthwatch England said that disabled people faced difficulties getting in and out of GP surgeries that did not have ramps and other necessary facilities. In Luton, for example, wheelchair users did not have easy access at 26 out of 39 GP practices.

Its study of 550 GP practices and feedback from 11,000 patients also found examples of relatives having to carry loved ones up stairs and of a five-year-old girl having to translate between a GP and her mother, who was deaf.