Joint bid to boost care work jobs
A bold initiative aims to reduce hospital waiting times and provide high quality, better paid jobs for care workers in B&NES.
A pioneering team is being set up to reduce delayed discharges and clear ‘bed-blocking’ at the Royal United Hospital and help patients back into the community.
The B&NES Home Care Service has been developed through a collaboration between B&NES Council and the Royal United Hospital and will create a new in-house team of health and social care workers, run jointly by the council and the hospital. The in-house team will be used flexibly to support flow through hospital beds.
“There are unprecedented pressures on the health and care system due to Covid-19 and staff shortages,” said Cllr Alison Born (inset), cabinet lead for adult social care.
“The situation requires an innovative response and this is one of a range of services that have been developed locally to help people leave hospital once they are medically fit for discharge.
“We want to ensure that patients leaving hospital get the best home care we can provide to support their recovery. Bath and North East Somerset has a strong tradition of promoting integrated working in health and social care and this new initiative builds on that tradition to improve the services our communities receive.”
Cllr Born has been a strong campaigner to recruit more carers in Bath and North East Somerset and pay them a real living wage. She revealed in January that B&NES was short of 270 vital care workers due to the competitive job market.
The council is working to improve pay rates across all care providers through its ‘Fair Price for Care’ initiative. The RUH is advertising these posts at the salary of £20,330-£21,333 plus 21 days’ annual leave.
“This collaborative development between the hospital and social care is a great step for residents of the county and will help more patients get home once they are ready to leave hospital,” said Simon Sethi, chief operating officer of the RUH.
“This in turn helps ensure we have capacity within the hospital to care for those who need it most. The new service also provides excellent career opportunities for those looking to join the NHS and make a real difference to their local community.”