With winter well and truly here, the focus on how the NHS will deal and fend off a winter crisis is high on the agenda for most politicians. Despite an immediate £335m bailout and an extra £1.6bn next year, mentioned by Philip Hammond in the Autumn budget last week, there were no extra funds for social care in the budget. Analysts believe this amounts to only half of what the NHS require in order to keep up with the demand over winter.
A meeting is being held this week with two former Tory health secretaries and the Conservative chair of the Commons health committee. The main reason is to discuss rationing of services and how to tackle the long-term health and social care funding crisis, which remains unresolved.
Recently the Government confirmed to local authorities that it has dropped plans to impose a cap on care costs by 2020. New draft plans dealing with the social care crisis are not expected until next summer now.
It appears that there is not only a need for short term funds, but also for a long-term resolution to the social care system.
