Councils suggest alternative to delayed discharge penalties

The Local Government Association has drawn up an alternative to
the government’s plan to make local authorities responsible
for the cost of delayed discharges.

The proposal is based on the premise that delayed discharges
have no single cause, that no single agency is responsible for
them, and that they have negative effects across the system as well
as on the individual patients.

Possible measures include increasing the number of indicators
that are designated as being a shared responsibility between health
and social care, and giving key indicators a greater weighting
within the social care performance assessment model.

The report also suggests developing new targets, standards or
indicators where coverage is currently not strong, such as
intensive nurse support at home, and using financial incentives to
support above average performance.

Members of the LGA’s social affairs and health executive
have agreed the report which will be presented at a meeting with
ministers in July.

 

 

 

 

More from Community Care

Comments are closed.