Redesigning Health and Social Care

At 6am this morning, my radio alarm woke me with the news that older people in England could be asked to take out insurance to pay for care in later life.  Still half asleep, I reached for my cheque book and mumbled, ‘how much …”

We have this problem – services are over subscribed and under resourced.  It’s being addressed  by asking individuals to take more responsibility.  So now, there is a greater emphasis on prevention, self management of health and a drive to get as many people as possible back to work.  The proposed abolishment of the retirement age will further feed self responsibility in later life.  And anyway, in the UK, care of older people in the home by family and friends has been the rule rather than the exception. 

But we are on the cusp of a change now.  Jan Walmsley (2009), in an article written for our course, recently argued that more mobile families, more women in work, lower birth rates with more people over 65 than under 16 means that the availability of such care will be in decline.  There may well be less family and friends care available.  Self responsibility yes, but we will still need someone to care for us.

So who will provide care?  Demand exceeds supply.  The population of Doctors and Nurses is aging too.  I predict a change in the workforce.  There will be less traditionally registered workers entering practice following extended periods of academic training and more of a workforce with less training going into practice sooner.  The trick will be making sure they are equipped for what is being increasingly recognised as a complex job. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 at 9:51 am by Chris Kubiak and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.