Social care must be tackled to save NHS

TWO Nottingham GPS feel the need to write to their patients saying the NHS is “on its knees” and that it has become impossible to deliver a service that does no harm. This headlined the Post (December 2).

Inside, Ron Gretton (“How I’d bring a quick fix to our vital NHS”, Opinion, December 2) offers a solution to clear more hospital beds by pumping more funds into social care. His proposal is for the Government to buy and run nursing homes to smooth the path of hospital discharges.

I like Ron’s idea, but it could only work if the political will and a massive financial input was forthcoming.

It is clear that years of underfunding and then a pandemic has profoundly impacted the primary care and secondary care sectors of our NHS.

It makes me very sad to see this demise in an institution we all grew up with and I worked in both sectors for nearly 30 years.

The failings of social care were apparent to me as a hospital nurse in the 1980s.

These failings have magnified since then, and until they are tackled, nothing will improve.

Jean Nunn

Kimberley