Health secretary sets up £500mn social care fund to boost NHS
A £500mn fund to bolster social care in England, and changes to pension tax rules to stem the exodus of senior doctors from the NHS, were at the centre of a “plan for patients” unveiled by the UK government on Thursday.
Speaking against the backdrop of a beleaguered health service, with a record 7mn patients waiting for non-urgent care, health secretary Therese Coffey said she expected backlogs “to rise before they fall as more patients come forward for diagnosis and treatment after the pandemic”.
A new adult social care fund “will help speed up the safe discharge of patients from hospital this winter to free up beds as well as helping to retain and recruit more care workers”, said Coffey.
Dr Vishal Sharma, pensions committee chair at the British Medical Association, said the announcement showed “the government has finally woken up to the immediate risk of doctors retiring in record numbers”. But he added that its proposals “only offer sticking plasters and not the long-term fix that the NHS desperately needs to retain doctors”.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Josephine Cumbo
