Therese Coffey promised to end record wait times for ambulances and the bed-blocking issue in the NHS by yesterday.
Fixing social care, according to the health secretary, should be a top priority so that medically well patients may leave the hospital quickly.
As a result, more patients will be admitted for procedures, and ambulances won’t have to wait in line outside of A&E for a bed to open up.
Miss Coffey pledged to save health and social care budgets and expand access to dentists and general practitioners.
She disallowed charging individuals to see their primary care physician and proposed sending more of the 6.7 million patients on NHS waiting lists to private hospitals so they may get treatment more quickly.
She said on LBC yesterday: “I’m extremely cognizant that we need to make changes and we need to make them fast,” expressing the seriousness with which she was approaching her work.
One in seven hospital beds, or more than 13,000 patients, according to data published by The Daily Mail last month, are occupied by people who have no medical need to be there. These “delayed discharges” or bed-blockers may cost the NHS up to £5.5 million per day.
Due to a lack of caregivers, vulnerable patients encounter evaluation delays and have trouble obtaining a spot in a care facility or someone to assist them prepare meals, do their laundry, and get dressed at home.
‘People are clear that within the system there are people in hospital who don’t need to be in hospital, do need continuing care, but not necessarily in our acute hospitals,’ Miss Coffey said when asked about Prime Minister Liz Truss’ plan to divert funds from the NHS to social care on BBC Radio’s 4 Today.
In order to increase the chance and ability for more people to get treatment in acute hospitals, we must ensure that we assist patients in getting to the location where they need to be.
Miss Coffey pledged to save health and social care budgets and expand access to dentists and general practitioners.
Therese Coffey promised to end record wait times for ambulances and the bed-blocking issue in the NHS by yesterday.
She disallowed charging individuals to see their primary care physician and proposed sending more of the 6.7 million patients on NHS waiting lists to private hospitals so they may get treatment more quickly.
She remarked on BBC Breakfast: “There are hundreds of people in hospitals who don’t need to be there clinically but require care once they leave.” It will be crucial to concentrate on both social care and health.
As crews are compelled to wait in line with patients outside A&E until a bed becomes available, they are unable to respond to fresh 999 calls, which contributes to catastrophic ambulance delays.
Since heart attacks and strokes fall under “category 2” calls, the average response time is 59 minutes, which is three times the objective of 18 minutes.
Spending on health and care will not change, according to Miss Coffey, but the contentious health and social care tax, which now costs £12 billion annually and is paid for by an increase in national insurance, will be eliminated.
She said, “I believe we need to employ all the capacity there is in the healthcare system,” when asked about utilising private corporations to administer hospitals.
She said on LBC yesterday: “I’m extremely cognizant that we need to make changes and we need to make them fast,” expressing the seriousness with which she was approaching her work.
By stating that “We want to be advocating what we can do better for people so they can get their appointments, whether for a doctor or a dentist, to handle the backlogs, the ambulances, and of course social care,” Miss Coffey promised to assist patients in obtaining NHS appointments.
Her remarks are in accordance with the four goals she listed when she was named Health and Social Care Secretary, which are “A, B, C, D” — ambulance backlogs, care, physicians, and dentists.
She responded that she hoped doctors would “continue to put their patients first” and that they would receive “a significant package that’s been agreed… through the independent pay review body” when asked how she planned to prevent junior doctors from going on strike over pay increases of up to 30%.