Thérèse Coffey, the new health secretary, unveiled the move in the Commons on Thursday as part of her plans to tackle the growing crisis in the health service, especially long patient delays for care. The newly-launched adult social care discharge fund aims to relieve pressure on overstretched hospitals in England by ensuring that patients who doctors have judged good enough to leave can be discharged safely either to their homes or to a care home. More than 13,000 of the NHS’s 100,000 general and acute hospital beds are currently full with ‘delayed discharge’ patients, which has led to overcrowding in A&E units and long delays in ambulance deliveries. The £500m will go to care home operators and home care providers, who mainly help frail older people living at home with tasks such as eating, dressing and getting out of bed. In her first speech since becoming health secretary 16 days ago, Coffey told MPs: “I can announce today that we are launching a £500m adult welfare relief fund for this winter. “The local NHS will work with councils on targeted plans for specific care packages to support people either at home or in the wider community. This £500m acts as a down payment to balance funding between health and social care as we develop our long-term plan.” The Guardian revealed earlier in September that Coffey was considering plans to increase investment in social care to free up hospital beds. However, it is unclear whether the £500m is actually new funding provided by the government or will come from an NHS budget already under pressure due to rising energy and essential supplies costs, and £1.8bn also needs to be found for the financing of 5%. pay agreement for NHS staff. Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, claimed that Coffey’s proposals, called “our plan for patients” did not contain action that came close to what is needed to tackle the many difficulties facing the NHS. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Reminding MPs that Coffey is the third health minister in three months, Streeting said: “The faces change but the story remains the same. There is no plan yet that comes close to addressing the scale of the challenge. no plan for staffing, no real plan for the NHS.’ She said a key weakness in her plan was the lack of proposals to tackle chronic NHS understaffing. NHS vacancies in England recently rose from 105,000 to 133,000. Daisy Cooper, Lib Dem health spokeswoman and deputy leader, said: “Patients are being forced to pay a dangerous price for years of chronic underfunding and broken promises by the Conservatives.”
