Cornwall to increase pressure on Government to properly fund Health and Social Care

Cornwall to increase pressure on Government to properly fund Health and Social Care. Below is the motion that I proposed and was unanimously passed today at Full Council.

This Council’s ambition for Cornwall is to maintain and improve Health and Social Care provision to meet the needs of our local population, despite Government cuts to funding. This Council calls upon the Government to acknowledge that making better use of existing resources  will not in itself resolve the growing crisis confronting both the NHS and local council adult and children’s’ social care services and that additional funding is also needed. 

This Council resolves to write to all of Cornwall’s MPs and the Health Minister to request that the issue of the historic underfunding of health services in Cornwall is addressed to support our efforts to achieve an NHS and Social Care system that is adequately funded as well as effectively organised.

Below are the notes I used to propose the motion to Council.

In moving this motion I hope that this Council will support me in telling the Government that we cannot locally or Nationally re-organise ourselves out of the growing crisis of NHS and Social Care. More funding is urgently needed and here in Cornwall we need a fairer share of the National funding pot as the current formulae that assumes wealth because people own cars is ridiculous. On all other measures we are considered to have significant areas of deprivation, hence the EU funding we have enjoyed and this ought to be the basis of our funding for Health. It should also be acknowledged that our Social Care budgets have been and continue to struggle to meet the needs of our population but that we do not have wealth in Cornwall to generate the levels of funding needed, locally.

This is not just Sue James, councillor for St Just saying this.

BMA warns of £9.5bn cost to STP implementation
The British Medical Association (BMA) has said that at least £9.5bn  upfront spending is needed to carry out the sustainability and transformation plans (STPs)

A report from Age UK concluded that the Vulnerable left without help as care system buckles
The report states that thousands of bed-bound elderly people are not getting the support they need because the social care system is facing “a real risk of total collapse”. It says 1.2m people over the age of 65 do not get the help they need with everyday living, a rise of 48% since 2010.

Integrating health and social care won’t solve the funding pressures

Is what Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England warns. He went on to say that Councils being able to raise the precept for adult social care is a contribution but not a solution.

Sarah Wollaston Conservative MP & GP: Underfunding means STPs now being seen by public as a vehicle for cuts rather than an opportunity to improve area-based design of services

I am not saying that there are not merits in the changes being proposed through the STP process but we cannot reduce our spend on Health and Social care whilst bringing those changes about. We cannot integrate and re-organise health and social care by stopping what we are currently doing and moving that money to develop different cheaper pathways of care. We need to create and get working effectively and efficiently the community based ideas before anything further is closed or stopped and that is going to take more money, at least in the short term and I want this Council to make this clear.

So, this motion is saying that the funding budget for Health and Social Care Nationally needs to be bigger and that Cornwall deserves a bigger, fairer share of that funding pot. Only then do we have any hope of meeting the needs of the people of Cornwall.

Webcast of the Full Council meeting Tuesday 21 February. You can watch as much or as little as you like!