WIREDGOV

Plans to improve out of hospital care for the elderly & vulnerable will reduce emergency admissions, the DH and DCLG announced last week.  Following a review of the first set of local plans for the Better Care Fund, a renewed agreement has strengthened a commitment to bring health & care service providers closer together to make joint decisions, ensuring more people receive joined-up, personalised care closer to home. The fund and the benefits it is creating will be an enduring feature of health and care provision beyond 2016.

Building on existing practices whereby local government already purchases care services from a range of suppliers, the fund, with a shared budget of at least £3.8bn, will bring (from April 2015):

• more dignity & independence for the frail & elderly by providing the care they need at or closer to home
• 7-day health & care services — to ensure that people can access the care they need when they need it
• a named professional— who can join up services around individuals, and prevent them from falling through the gaps
• better data sharing — so that people don’t need to endlessly repeat their story to every professional who cares for them
• joint assessments — so that services can work together to assess and meet people’s needs all in one go

• Better care plans to provide dignity, independence and reduce A&E admissions for the elderly & vulnerable
• Fundamental standards: improving quality & transparency in care
• NHS could be losing out on at least £25bn of funding a year by the end of the decade, warn unions
• England faces great adult social care squeeze
• NAO:  Out-of-hours GP services in England
• TKF: The Integration Transformation Fund - the foundation of a genuinely integrated system or just another brick in the wall?
• Better Care Fund, better read the small print
• Ethos: Primary care: the future?
• NHS England:  Better Care Fund Planning
• Being ill when older can be frightening & confusing
• A more decentralised NHS (3rd item)
• The way to an affordable & efficient NHS (4th item)
• £50m care fund to support older people and help reduce pressure on the NHS in Wales
• LGA:  Failure to fund could jeopardise social care reforms
• LGA:  Integrated Care – Better Care Fund
• Government funding to help 10,000 older people stay independent
• Emergency admissions to hospital: managing the demand
• Wales needs to end its dependency on hospitals & embrace the shift to care in the community
• 2.3m fewer overnight hospital stays needed if all areas perform as well as top 25%
• Patients Association responds to figures which show that 28% of patients receiving hospital treatment in Scotland die within a year
• Report on urgent & emergency services
• Overhaul of End of Life Care system
• NHS Confed: There is a need for change in the NHS (4th item)
• How good is the care in your area (5th item)