Guest Blog: affording the unaffordable – the PM’s pledge on pick-and-mix care
Gordon Brown has this week pledged to introduce a personalised approach to social care. Dubbed the National Care Service, it could see 350,000[1] of the nation’s elderly gain greater control over how and where they are cared for. The scheme would allow the most frail or in-need to be looked after in their own homes for free. “Too good to be true”, I hear you cry. But what may seem an ambitious plan makes a lot of sense, both for the older population and the public purse.
Many of the UK’s elderly reluctantly go into care homes when they would rather stay at home. Despite the standard of care being much higher here than elsewhere in Europe, for some, it’s a matter of independence, dignity and the social ties with neighbours, family and friends.
What made a scheme of this kind unrealistic in the past is the cost of managing older people’s health needs remotely. The outcome of a lapse in care can have an expensive impact on hospital admissions and individuals’ long-term health. And with elderly patients taking an average of five prescriptions each[2], managing medication at home can create a further burden on the public budget. Whether patients don’t take medication as prescribed, or it doesn’t have the desired effect, it equates to pouring a significant portion of the NHS’ multi-billion pound drug budget down the drain. In the financial battle between care homes and home care, the residential option has traditionally come out on top.
So the question remains: how to afford the unaffordable. How to trim the cost of caring for our elderly in their own homes. Organisation is the answer. The technology and resources now exist to make this an affordable alternative to the much-travelled route from own home to care home.
Inventions like e-health and intelligent packaging make it easy for medical professionals to monitor remotely when patients take their medication. Automatic alerts sent from drug packaging to mobile phone to PC, make communication between carer, GP and family more seamless and cost effective. Plus, the expertise of local pharmacists is a largely untapped resource that could make high levels of compliance, care and recovery an achievable prospect.
We’re no longer a nation that trusts its government implicitly to look after us at all stages of life. We’re as discerning about how our share of public funds is spent, as we are our own income. That’s why Gordon Brown’s proposition to give older people more control over their care options is a step in the right direction. A move to closely monitored home care will improve health outcomes and free up space in care homes and hospitals. The savings this generates will help offset the cost of in-home care, making it a feasible and sustainable solution to the elderly’s care conundrum.
Norman Niven, CEO, Protomed