Social care and NHS get £2.9bn to free up 15,000 hospital beds for coronavirus

Health secretary Matt Hancock has announced £2.9bn will be spent on helping patients not requiring urgent hospital treatment to return home with “the right support” in a bid to free up at least 15,000 beds to treat those with the coronavirus.

Some £1.6bn will be given to local authorities to meet the cost of increased demand for social care because of COVID-19 pressures.

The government is also spending £1.3 billion to improve the NHS discharge process to enable patients who no longer need urgent treatment to return home ‘safely and quickly’.

'Once in a generation challenge'

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said: “Our NHS and social care colleagues are at the heart of protecting the most vulnerable during the coronavirus outbreak, and the whole country is tremendously grateful for their commitment during this challenging time.

“This funding will help the NHS and social care services in our communities to rise to this once in a generation challenge by allowing the NHS to do what it needs to, and help move people out of hospital as soon as possible to get them back home with the right support.”

The extra funding, from the £5 billion COVID-19 fund announced in the Chancellor’s budget, will help local authorities give ‘more support for the adult social care workforce’, the government announced.

The money is aimed at covering the follow-on care costs for adults in social care, or people who need additional support when they are out of hospital and back in their homes, community settings or care settings.

Local government secretary, Robert Jenrick said: “We’re giving local councils £1.6 billion of additional funding to spend where it’s needed most, to ensure they can meet the cost of the increased demand for social care, and continue to protect the most vulnerable people in society.”

'Make sure people aren't discharged without suitable support'

Some 70 per cent of all care home residents have dementia and 95 per cent of people with dementia are aged over-65, according to the Alzheimer’s Society.

A quarter of hospital beds are occupied by people with dementia and there are 200,000 people living with dementia in the community, the charity says.

Sally Copley, director of policy campaigns and partnerships at Alzheimer's Society said: “We hugely welcome extra funding for social care announced for those most at risk through the coming weeks.

“The demands on our overstretched social care system will only increase as many of our care workers become ill or are forced to self-isolate, as well as the 1.8 million unpaid carers in the UK.”

Ms Copley added: “The social care crisis is a dementia crisis".

"All of this is rightly being issued at speed – so we do need to make sure people aren’t discharged without suitable support in place.

“Local authorities need to clarify where they’ll find the extra social care capacity and work effectively with the NHS to deliver this.“