Generational opportunity
This week, the Department of Health and Social Care, in partnership with NHS England, launches the biggest national conversation about the state of the NHS in its 76-year history.
Change NHS is a once in a lifetime opportunity for all of us, whatever our age, circumstance, or profession, to share our experiences, ideas, and concerns about the state of our health and care system. It’s our chance to make a difference and help shape its future.
But what does the widest public engagement for a generation have to do with social care? The answer is: quite a lot. There can be no long term solutions to fixing the challenges facing the NHS without meaningful involvement from the care sector.
As social care nurses and colleagues in wider care teams, we are dedicated to maximising good health and wellbeing and, where clinically appropriate, avoiding hospital admissions and supporting timely discharge.
In cases where people are discharged from hospital back to residential or nursing care settings, or their own homes, we are there to support ongoing recovery. We do this by working with NHS community teams to maximise their independence for as long as possible.
Insights tested in the field
We already proved our worth alongside our equally dedicated NHS colleagues during the pandemic (working closely together to limit and minimise outbreaks and uphold the highest standards of infection prevention and control).
We also undertook enhanced roles to meet increased care needs. We can build from that experience with further opportunities generated through neighbourhood teams, helping us deliver care as close to home as possible.
Likewise, our expertise in delegated healthcare activities, where regulated healthcare professionals, including nurses or occupational therapists, delegate healthcare interventions to care colleagues, continues to enhance the care experience as we look after the same people in different ways.
This evolution in care and support fits well with the government’s desire to see three major ‘shifts’ in how healthcare is delivered in England: ‘from analogue to digital’, ‘from sickness to prevention’ and ‘from hospital to community’. Social care can be a strong and effective partner in all three.
‘From hospital to community’, like the other shifts, is not a new aspiration, but I welcome its return, because it is arguably the place where our input as care professionals carries most weight.
If we’re to improve our health and care system for care colleagues, residents, and patients, we need to understand why things don’t always work as smoothly as they could.
Ideas? We have plenty
What examples from our professional experience could make things work more effectively? Better communication is often the way to solve many workplace problems.
We might recommend more timely pharmacy access, proactive discharge planning and other ways we can work with clinical counterparts to make sure residents and patients are cared for in the right place at the right time.
How can we develop the incredible skills of our workforce to be the best care home nurse specialists and advanced practitioners they can be?
There is so much more we can do to avoid hospital admissions through activities like nurse prescribing, for example, halting deterioration of treatable conditions like UTI’s.
End of life care, in both domestic and residential settings, is another area in which we excel. We should grasp this opportunity to share our learning across the care and health sectors.
So, wherever care colleagues and people who use care services live and work, the campaign really wants to hear from you. Whether you have a little or a lot to say, it all matters, it all has value.
While you can quickly and easily contribute online, more than 100 in-person events will be taking place nationwide, and the voice of social care will be welcome at all of them.
I will be working closely with the new NHS England Chief Nursing Officer, Duncan Burton, to make sure social care nursing and wider care sector voices are heard loud and clear.
Rest assured, your views will play a vital role in shaping the government’s 10-Year Health Plan to build a health and care system fit for the future.
Find out more
To find out how to give your views on the 10-Year Health Plan, visit Change.NHS.uk.
19 comments
Comment by Amanda Byrne posted on
Whilst more GP’s and more appointments is undoubtedly welcome. I have serious concerns around access to these appointments. My GP has a phone on day appointment system whatever the reason for the appointment so your only option is to join the 8.30am “Rugby Scrum” which often results in 20/30 minutes on the phone to be told when you finally get through that there are no appointments left! This is an incredibly unfair system for so many people:- Mum’s on the school run, those that cannot work from home and are commuting, workers like myself (I’m a healthcare worker) who are already at work at 8.30 and where sitting on the end of a phone is not an option. There is no way of making a non urgent appointment for example a medicine review without joining the phone queue with people who may be feeling really unwell but, not poorly enough to go to hospital. I also think this leads to unnecessary attendance at Accident and Emergency departments because people become so desperate to be seen.
Comment by David A Cooper posted on
Make care for those facing dementia much more affordable if advanced sufferers have to move into a Care Home.
Comment by Matthew Vaughan posted on
Stop extracting premolar teeth from teenagers as part of NHS orthodontic treatment.
It causes stunted jaw growth resulting in a narrower airway and will lead to crippling sleep apnea in adulthood.
The NHS had to operate on me to fix this problem that they caused at a cost to the taxpayer of over £30,000.
Comment by William Shore posted on
Completely computerise all aspects of NHS care to be delivered by AI so that no-one need leave their home for treatment, thereby being able to sell off all hospitals to raise hundreds of billions for new houses for the poor on the old hospital sites, along with compulsory PT for all fat NHS staff in the interim (that's upwards of between 60-75% of all staff currently) to be paid for by all Labour freebies from Lord Alli to ministers being reallocated to the PT programme.
What if I am a real person without an email address? My mother and father didn't have email addresses. Were they real people. If not, what am I?
Comment by C. Abbott posted on
If the NHS wants to retain staff in hospitals it is essential for the parking situation to be better.
It is no use being ecologically sound if nurses keep leaving because they can't park. Using P&R can be expensive and take a long time.
Hospitals should also use email and phones to make appointments as the post in some places is shocking. Some areas only get deliveries twice a week, if lucky.
It is also no use insisting on using technology until computing systems can be guaranteed to work properly and all the time. I believe many millions have been wasted on ones that do not.
Diversity officers should be scrapped as the NHS is already the most diverse employer in the country. Also, is the whole layer of management called Clinical Governance really necessary? The offices of hospital managers are often very swish.
Comment by David Maynard posted on
I spent seven weeks in hospital this year due to a problem with a colostomy. The hospital food was awful, at times inedible. Much of the food was returned and wasted. Not apparently an isolated occurrence.
Surely something can be done.
One idea is this - we pay for our food everywhere else, why not in hospital. If a charge was made it would enable more funds to make better arrangements to supply quality food.
Nutrition is an important part of recovery. It must get better!
Comment by Vicky Bevan posted on
Just as with a driving licence anyone using the NHS should provide proof of compliance. If using A and E a credit card should be used if not carrying an NHS card. Most European countries do this.
NHS records should be integrated between G.P's and hospitals.
Doctors should be obliged to work the equivalent of 5 years full time after qualifying before leaving the UK or be debited with the cost of their training.
The BMA should be widely recognised as a trades union
Comment by Margaret law posted on
The UK government needs to stop people from overseas using free NHS services.
We need to look at what Australia does with regard to treating patients from overseas. Also people who have emigrated and using medical services within the first 5 years. Payment up front is required before services are given.
The UK tax payers have paid towards their NHS care and we should not be giving free medical care to people from outside the UK no matter how they entered the country.
Comment by Angela Somerset posted on
For the nhs to improve there needs to be rehabilitation homes for elderly people linked to each hospital. Some elderly people are fit to return home but care plans takes far too long to be put in place. An Interim place needs to be created to care for these people until that happens. We used to have a geriatric hospital here In rotherham and that’s what’s needed to feee us beds in our hospitals. This would prevent bed blocking and would only need a couple of nurses long with carers to provide the service.
Also walk-in centres should not be on hospital sites. This creates many problems for A & E. they should be elsewhere in the community as parking on hospital sites it a nightmare.
Comment by Saeed Ismail posted on
Hi i Believe we should establish xray ,mri scanners and blood testing and reporting in Each GP surgery that will reduce the workload on NHS hospitals greatly
Comment by Anonymous posted on
Treat people with special needs and/or disabilities as actual people and don't talk down to them, patronise them and expect them to “tolerate” ableism. Using simple language or talking slower is okay when asked/needed, but never assume that they are mentally incompetent just because they have a disability. Treat them as human and talk to them in the same way you would with a non-disabled person.
Comment by R Ager posted on
Organisations of scale require competent and strong management.
That includes improving the quality of that management. There is no evidence that this is a process followed by the NHS. Without this process and actual improvement of the quality and ability of management, business outside the public sector would fail.
Additionally allowing organisations of the scale of the NHS to be responsible at a unit level to agree “the price of cornflakes” does not stand up to scrutiny. The cost to the state of such purchasing decisions is entirely avoidable. Savings can then be invested in front line services.
Comment by Karen Suares-Bennett posted on
New Hospitals need to be built ,it is unfair for staff and patients. The NHS cannot function without the carers, This needs action not just words.
People of all ages are suffering from a lack of Dentise.
NHS staff need to have a better understanding of adult and chidren with Disabilities.
When you start using AI technology in the NHS you won`t be able to stop it.
We rely on technology to much. i would like more GP and GP Surgeries.
Science is important to the NHS.
Comment by Sam O posted on
In my opinion the NHS is a wonderful institution but it could definitely be improved. Luckily, every experience my family and I in the North West have had has been excellent but this clearly isn't the case across the country. It needs huge investment in staffing and technology (two priority areas in my opinion). Most NHS staff are amazing but overworked and underpaid, particularly the nurses on the wards. We need to pay NHS staff more competitively to encourage them to stay in their professions and not move abroad where they can command higher salaries, but we also need to reduce the burden on staff by ensuring the NHS is properly staffed in all areas, ensuring technology is leverage to its full potential and hospitals/GP surgeries are able to communicate effectively with each other on a standardised system that is safe and secure. Unfortunately this will cost a lot of money, probably in the billions, but I think most people would rather pay to have top notch hospitals and fairly treated staff.
Comment by Chris Stanton posted on
Re-branding the NHS as the NEIGHBOURHOOOD Health Service will be an opportunity to achieve the ultimate in co-design. Over many years this vital public service has been disfigured by faceless acronyms (CCGs, ICPs, PCTs to name but three!) and now needs to rediscover its roots and relevance - to the general public the only initials they recognise and that matter to them are "NHS". If the Government plan now is - through this conversation - to take the NHS to people where they live and work then be bold and reinvent it as the NEIGHBOURHOOD HEALTH SERVICE!
Comment by Susan Fursland posted on
I have always supported the NHS and will continue to but I am so devastated lately at my own position. For over 71 years I have been with my surgery as did my family. Suddenly I was removed as I was living outside the cashment area of 2 miles. On my side it was a devastating thing to happen to me. Over the last 15 years I had cancer and had the most wonderful relationship with my Doctor who helped me through not only physically but emotional as l time . Suddenly I have been completely side lined at my age and all that time in my surgery. At the time I had moved over that timeIt was a total genuine mistake on my behalf, I was going through a divorce, and never thought about it . Years passed and I needed my surgery and never give it a thought.
I am still very traumatised and had to register with a surgery and doctors I don’t even know. I am not well now and just don’t want to go to the new surgery. I feel so abandoned. I appealed but they still insisted it was not to be .
I am in limbo and I know my health has been affected by this for sure . After 71 years with the same surgery you would think they would be more understanding. 71 years!
Comment by James Johnson posted on
Please stop ringfencing funding for certain policies, just provide the funding to the providers at the front-line, with a clear set of expectations, metrics and outcomes, so local decisions can be made on the most appropriate and effective way to spend money.
Comment by Jill Balloch posted on
People need to pay something to maintain and improve it. Countries like New Zealand have an ACC levie. Approximately 10 pounds a fortnight out of your pay. So why not implement something like this. Also should be a small cost for prescriptions. Not free. People use and abuse things that are for free.
Improve systems and processes to make them more streamline and more connected.
Value your staff and listen to their thoughts and ideas of how to improve things. Thanks
Comment by Diane Wilkinson posted on
Put more money into GPs and social care including community nurses. Recruit more nurses! Make nursing a better paid profession! Bring back cottage hospitals in which people can recuperate rather than keeping them on wards. Whilst recuperating patients don’t necessarily need highly qualified nurses, they need nurses who have the time to help them eat, go to the toilet or just talk to them. Bring in “care” nurses who will be well paid.