NHS leaders call for social services reform amid coronavirus (COVID-19)

Article summary

Members of the Health for Care coalition have written to Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, calling on him to fix social care and set out a timetable for reform which addresses the current coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis and the challenges facing the social care sector more generally. The plea for support was prompted by fears that the NHS ‘will not have any hope of clearing the backlog of routine operations unless there is a comprehensive and funded plan to support social care services through the winter months’. Leading health organisations have warned that ‘patients will end up stranded in hospital because arrangements are not in place in the community or in care homes to support them’. Chief executive of the NHS Confederation and chair of the Health for Care coalition, Niall Dickson, said: ‘COVID-19 has highlighted the critical role that social care plays in supporting the NHS, but it has also exposed a fractured, understaffed...