Paying more for health?

Sir, Headlines in the local press and in social media over the last month have highlighted significant concerns, expressed by communities, staff and politicians, related to the potential changes which the Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership has considered in order to balance its budget.

It is right that these issues are flagged up and that communities feel ownership of the precious services which exist to support people in their local areas.

It is also essential that those faced with making the difficult decisions about prioritisation of public finances listen to the voices of those who use services and to local communities.

I worked in NHS Highland until May 2017 and I am very aware of how challenging it is for service managers to meet the growing costs of health and social care from within existing budgets. Continuous efforts are made to address areas of harm, waste and variation in the systems of care and some of these do yield significant financial benefits – for example, reducing the number of people who fall and sustain harmful injuries is beneficial primarily for the people themselves, but it also reduces the financial costs of hospital stays and surgery.

Nonetheless, the growing need for care cannot be ignored and neither can the growing costs of care. The current health and social care budget in Scotland is not sufficient to cover the costs of delivering the kind of care that we would like for all those who need it.

Service managers are faced with daily challenges and dichotomies about how the available budget is allocated for those with the greatest need.

Having worked with these managers for many years, I know the level of commitment and hard work that each of them dedicates to the provision of care. In the same way that the frontline teams of care at home staff, social workers, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and allied health professionals work for the good of the people of Argyll and Bute, so too do those who are less visible to the public but who are nonetheless focused on doing the right thing.

Political point scoring and one-upmanship serves only to distract from the very real issues that we face.

Rather than vilifying the providers of our services in Argyll and Bute, we must all find ways to work together to ensure that our communities’ needs are met in the best ways possible.

Argyll and Bute’s communities hold many of the answers, are committed to sustainable and resilient futures and are keen to work in true collaboration with the statutory service providers.

This will require more active and meaningful engagement by the Health and Social Care Partnership with communities, so that the voices of those who use, and of those who need, the services are not only heard but also attended to.

By forging new relationships and egalitarian partnerships we can find innovative and creative solutions to the current challenges.

Finally, as individual tax payers, we need to consider what kind of health and social care services we want in Scotland and whether we are willing to pay more for them.

We must address the issues which cause people in more deprived areas to have poorer health, we must increase the investment in primary care and community care to help people to stay independent and well for as long as possible. We must also invest in social care and develop a career structure that values and recognises the essential contribution of carers to sustaining people in their own homes.

All of this will require a greater percentage of our GDP than we currently pay. Pat Tyrrell, co-convener, Argyll and Bute Greens.