£70 billion blueprint unveiled in bid to reduce bed blocking
NHS vows end to ‘fix and treat’ and plans more community-based care
A BLUEPRINT for the future of Scotland’s NHS has pledged to free up to 10 per cent of hospital beds within two years as it promised an end to “fix and treat” healthcare in favour of early interventions and more community-based care.
The Scottish Government said it will cut unscheduled hospital bed days by 400,000 by 2018 through a reduction in bed blocking and unplanned admissions, which are both strongly linked to the elderly population who are more likely to suffer falls or side effects from multiple medications.
Delayed discharges – also known as bed blocking – have been increasing as hospitals struggle with a shortage of care home places or community-based social care that would enable patients to return to their own homes safely.
The Government’s Health and Social Care Delivery Plan said it would “improve links” between primary, secondary and community care and “take action on the extent to which emergency admis- sions are currently inappropriate and avoidable”.
It forms part of a £70 billion spend over the next five years prioritising areas including primary care, mental health, social care and cancer.
Routine check-up or test results will be handled by communitybased health care professionals and by 2021 everyone who needs it should have access to hospice, palliative or end of life care.
By 2022, every GP practice will also have access to a pharmacist with advanced clinical skills and 1,000 new paramedics will be in post.
The report also sets out plans for a “clear focus on early intervention” and a drive “to create a culture in which healthy behaviours are the norm, starting from the earliest years and persisting throughout our lives”.
In 2017, ministers will consult on a new strategy to tackle poor diet and obesity that are among the “huge preventable costs” facing the NHS in Scotland.
By 2020, the paper promises “increased capacity and reduced waiting times” for mental health services, including Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and psychological therapies.
There is also a push to consider delivering specialist diagnostic and elective surgeries from regional or national centres of excellence, instead of locally, to “free up capacity in hospitals and acute care”.
The report, published yesterday, said: “Services should be organised and delivered at the level where they can provide the best, most effective service for individuals.
“Regional – and in some case, national – centres of expertise and planning should develop for some acute services to improve patient care.”
Some functions, such as human resources, finance, procurement, and transport will be reviewed to assess whether they could be consolidated nationally instead of being delivered on a board-byboard basis, with new arrangements in place by 2019.
Health Secretary Shona Robison said the plan would see “more care delivered closer to home”.
She added: “The plan I am setting out today puts actions and timescales to an already established direction of travel.”