Extra NHS cash for winter ‘a sticking plaster’

Extra government cash to help health services cope over the winter months is ‘only a sticking plaster’, a leading councillor has warned.

Rochdale has been handed an additional winter pressures grant of £1.1m ahead of an anticipated spike in demand.

The payment - which will also be available next year- comes from an overall £240m government pot which is distributed nationally.

Rochdale’s health and wellbeing chief, Councillor Sara Rowbotham, has welcomed the boost to funding - but still harbours fears for the longer term.

“It doesn’t look too bad, but it’s a sticking plaster,” she said.  

“The budget deficits are still there after the two years, so the next financial year after that, you will still have them.

“It’s taking away an awful lot of that financial pressure - but it’s what happens after that.

“It’s like one step forward and one back - you think ‘thank God for that’ but then can’t not think about those practitioners being unemployed in 18 months’ time. 

“What happens then? It’s not going to magically go away, the pressures are still going to be there.”

However, Councillor Rowbotham says she is confident in the borough’s plans to mitigate the impact of the winter period.

Much of the cash is being used to ensure that - once well enough - patients can be discharged from hospital and cared for in the community, freeing beds for others that need them.

This includes 30 new beds to enable people to be discharged and assessed in a care home within two weeks of discharge, an extra five beds at Millfield care home and additional funding for home care services.

More social workers and support workers will be recruited and the money will also part-fund an advanced practitioner post.

Councillor Rowbotham praised the work of Sam Evans, Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group’s chief finance officer, in putting together the plan.

She said: “Obviously the allocation is really good and seems really financially appropriate and supportive, with additional staff and beds.”

Previous winters have seen the NHS tested to breaking point, following flu and norovirus outbreaks.

But steps had already been taken in Rochdale to stave off a winter crisis - such as promoting uptake of the flu jab.

She said: “We have done really well with our flu figures, getting people to come in and have their flu vaccine. It’s a case of ‘invest to save’.”

“We put an awful lot of energy doing that and improving figures from last year.”

To alleviate pressures on A&E departments the borough also deploys the HMR Emergency Assess and Treatment Team (HEATT) car, where appropriate, in a bid to keep admissions down.

“The idea is that, rather than call an ambulance and take people straight to hospital, it’s about treating people in their own homes,” said Councillor Rowbotham.

However, Councillor Rowbotham says that, while the borough seems well equipped for whatever the winter may bring, anxieties remain.

“You can’t be complacent because last year was just awful,” she said. 

“We had floods and everything else and we want our services to be equipped and robust and strong enough to take on any eventuality and provide the best possible care we can.”