The Department of Health has published a report outlining its 5 year plan for reshaping the NHS. Entitled ‘NHS 2010-2015: from good to great. Preventative, people-centred, productive’, the report tells how the NHS plans to meet the country’s increasing care needs whilst dealing with the financial constraints of the recession. Its publication comes in the wake of a recent report from the charity Age Concern, ‘Waiting for Care’, which describes how current NHS targets and initiatives are not meeting the most pressing needs of the UK’s elderly population.
Chapter 2 of the NHS report describes how it will deal with the health and social care issues posed by the UK’s ageing population, in particular long-term health needs, by focusing on preventative medicine, more personalised care with greater patient choice and wider access to community care. Specific measures that will be implemented include:
- Individual strategies to tackle the five most common long-term illnesses: respiratory disease, diabetes, heart disease, asthma and dementia. Notably, the report proposes reducing the use of anti-psychotic drugs to treat dementia by a third over the next 3 years.
- Support for patients to ‘self-care’ at home, reducing traumatic hospital admissions and allowing better management of their condition.
- Joint working with social services and wider access to services such as GPs, to provide better community support.
- Tackling all forms of discrimination, including ageism, and promoting patients’ rights to safe, effective treatment.
- Introducing the National Care Service from October 2010, which will include free personal care at home to all elderly people that require it, helping them to stay independent for as long as possible.
The report can be read in full or downloaded from the Department of Health’s website.
posted by Cheselden Continuing Care at
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