The way health and social care is funded is the central problem in ensuring services are integrated, a health policy analyst from the Royal College of Nursing said last week.
Because health was funded via taxation while social care was means-tested, bringing the two together was going to be a critical challenge in integrating health and social care, Helen Caulfield told a London conference.
She added that it was "unclear" how bringing together health and social care would make a difference to the public.
Moving towards integration with social care was "problematic" for staff on top of other structural changes, and it was difficult to see how a true partnership between health, social care and independent providers could be achieved, she claimed.
Care trusts had not taken off in the way that the government had hoped, she added, with enormous transaction costs involved in producing a care trust, and no additional government funding.
- Also at the conference the chairperson of Disability Action in Islington told delegates that the health service had "a lot to do" in order to implement the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
Alan Desborough said that disabled people dreaded negative language and being patronised when they came into contact with health professionals. These were major barriers for accessing health care on equal terms, he said.
"We have got to re-educate the medical profession," said Desborough. "I hope therefore that staff training in disability equality is high on the agenda, as well as access audits on buildings, and training must be run by disabled people who are qualified in disability equality training." Disability Action recently finished a year-long pilot project on health advocacy which identified physical barriers, such as counters in GP surgeries that are too high for wheelchair users, and too few sign language interpreters.
The conference was organised by Harrogate Centre for Excellence in Health and Social Care.
