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“That was really quick – straight in, straight out,” says Phil Brown as he leaves a smart glass building in a shopping centre in Barnsley. He has just had an ultrasound scan at an NHS centre which sits between familiar High Street names. It is easy-to-reach healthcare – as convenient as popping out to the shops.
Government hopes to reduce ill-health by shifting more services from hospitals into the community, focusing on prevention and making more use of new technology.
The NHS also has to cut waiting times, money is tight and the organisation which currently runs it, NHS England, is being scrapped to reduce bureaucracy.
There is another deep-rooted problem – a care system, supporting older and disabled people in the community, that is understaffed, underfunded and in crisis.
Government critics say you cannot reform the NHS unless you reform social care, because it helps get people out of hospital more quickly and prevents some being admitted in the first place.
Challenged on whether you can reform the NHS without changing social care, Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting tells Panorama that he doesn’t need to wait for a review and plans to divert more NHS money into social care.
“We keep pressure off the NHS a lot of the time,” says Darren Leigh, a care worker. “There are people in hospital that need to come out but can’t because they can’t get the care they need.”
The care system has struggled with underfunding, staff shortages and increasing demand for years.
Solving the problems of the NHS also requires tackling the difficulties of social care, which supports around a million older and disabled people in the community.
The main opposition parties in England agree social care needs to be reformed. But the Conservatives say the government has no real plan. The Liberal Democrats say the NHS cannot be fixed without fixing social care. Reform UK wants to simplify social care through a single funding stream. The Green Party is calling for free social care. And there are questions over whether the NHS has the money to make all the changes the government is promising.
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