Emergency NHS measures announced ahead of winter

New social care ‘traffic control centres’ and cash incentives for hospital performance have recently been announced to drive up care standards.

This week NHS England announced a new series of measures that will be implemented to stop health and social care forces from becoming too stressed this winter.

Currently, experts are expecting winter this year to be ‘difficult’ for services as last year many claimed it was the worst on record.

Additionally, it is expected that health services could also face a surge in demand with officials anticipating a large number of people needing help for respiratory illnesses including flu and Covid-19.

Part of the new measures, which were announced yesterday, include ‘traffic control centres’ to help speed up discharges so patients can be shipped out of hospitals when they no longer need to be there.

These hubs, likened to travel agents for social care, will act as a single place for staff to co-ordinate the best and quickest discharge options for patients – either at home or into social or community care. Those working in the hubs will be able to access electronic patient records and link up with housing services.

Max Parmentier, co-founder and CEO of Birdie, a technology company dedicated to helping the social care sector, said: ‘the NHS has announced a new package of measures hoped to drive up care standards ahead of winter, in the form of ‘Social care traffic control centres’ and ‘cash incentives for hospital performance’.

‘It feels like the equivalent of putting ice on a broken leg and calling it a day.

‘There is still potential even in these reactive measures to better support our healthcare teams, social care teams and our older population. This is seen in facilitating simple sharing of electronic patient records between health and social care providers. This will unlock the right care packages for individuals faster, and support staff across health and social care to feel confident in the system. 

‘Forget ‘cash incentives’; the ability to truly share local care capacity quickly with healthcare providers is the real next step to accelerating the discharge process.’

Although, despite apprehensions, an NHS spokesperson said that around a quarter of local areas currently offer this service 12 hours a day, seven days a week and is set to expand to every area of the country by winter.

Image: Adam Mills