Keir Starmer unveils plan to improve social care to free up more hospital beds
Keir Starmer will reveal his plan to improve social care so patients don’t get stuck in hospital.
The Labour leader will pledge to offer care workers training so they have better opportunities to progress in their careers.
As part of a drive to prevent deaths from heart failure and strokes, staff could be taught to carry out blood pressure readings and how to spot possible health issues.
Mr Starmer also will vow to get the NHS and the social care sector to work more closely together locally so that patients can be discharged from hospital quicker.
One in every seven hospital beds are taken up by people who no longer need to be there, costing the NHS at least £1.7billion a year.
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Keir Starmer has an battle plan to help re-shape the NHS (Cambridge News)It comes as he will tomorrow give a major speech detailing his plans to “build an NHS fit for the future”.
He will promise the next Labour government will tackle the biggest killers, including suicide, and bring hospital waiting times back down to safe levels.
Revealing the plans on social care to the Mirror, Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Labour would offer training to care workers to help get patients diagnosed earlier and to better support people who have long term health problems.
Cardiovascular disease causes one in four deaths, mostly from heart attack and strokes.
It can be prevented through lifestyle changes and managing conditions like high blood pressure.
The Labour leader will also promise to reduce deaths from heart disease (TOLGA AKMEN/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)But one in eight people do not know there is a problem with their blood pressure or are receiving no treatment for it.
Independent workforce planning for health care will consider how care workers can be offered opportunities to progress and expanded roles to help keep them in the sector.
Staff would be given proper time to carry out new health checks and provided with technology so results can be fed back to GPs and district nurses.
Mr Streeting said: “Care workers are highly capable, hard-working, caring people. There’s no group Labour would rather have join the fight against heart disease and stroke.
“If we can catch high blood pressure early, we can prevent so many needless deaths. Too many people are in hospital when they don’t need to be.
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“It’s miserable for them and expensive for the taxpayer. The next Labour government will get the NHS and social care providers working hand-in-hand.
He wants to hit all NHS cancer targets so patients are seen on time and diagnosed early (Wiktor Szymanowicz/REX/Shutterstock)“Together they can get patients out of hospital as soon as they’re ready, and keep them out.”
In his speech on Monday, Mr Starmer will vow to “lift the anxiety, the pain, the fear faced by millions of families across the country and replace it with the hope of a renewed NHS”.
As part of an ambitious set of targets for the next Labour government, he will pledge to reverse the rising number of deaths from suicide.
He will say: “Suicide is the biggest killer of young lives in this country.
The biggest killer. That statistic should haunt us. And the rate is going up. Our mission must be and will be: to get it down.”
Coroners’ statistics published earlier this month revealed that 2022 saw the highest number of suicides recorded in England and Wales.
The Labour leader will also promise to reduce deaths from heart disease and stroke by a quarter within ten years, and to hit all NHS cancer targets so patients are seen on time and diagnosed early.
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