Councils unite on social care front

North and South Lanarkshire councils and NHS Lanarkshire have announced they will be joining forces to continue to deliver health and social care services to patients and residents throughout the coronavirus outbreak.

Working whenever possible as a single organisation, the approach will be to deliver and manage many health and social care services across Lanarkshire in“a more integrated but resilient and sustainable manner”.

Calum Campbell, chief executive of NHS Lanarkshire, said:“Through partnership working, we will be in a much stronger position to bring together a wider team of people with excellent practical skills.

“Our ability to flexibly deploy our combined workforce to enable us to run vital health and social care services to benefit our people and communities is key.

“We will be working hard to keep our vital services running, freeing up capacity in our acute hospitals by accelerating discharges to make sure we can treat as many patients as possible as well as keeping our care homes open with sufficient staffing to run safely.”

Des Murray, chief executive of North Lanarkshire Council, added:“The resilience of health and social care services is of paramount importance. That’s why working as closely as possible to keep vital services running is the right thing to do.

“I’m appreciative of the efforts and flexibility of staff now and in the coming weeks and months. Their dedication to serving people in communities will make an enormous difference.”

Cleland Sneddon, South Lanarkshire Council’s chief executive, said:“I recognise the exceptional efforts health and social care staff are making to ensure people continue to receive treatment and support.

“At this unprecedented time, we are working even closer together to ensure we use our combined resources to best effect.

“We recognise there is a huge potential in our communities to assist with this and further advice will follow.”

Both councils and the health board are in the process of devising implementation plans.