Speech from the Chairman of the Committee on Community Care
Dr Andrew Dearden
Tuesday 29 June 2004
The committee has met three times during the 2003-04 session and has continued to work across a wide range of service areas, in response to both government initiatives and legislation and also to further develop BMA community care policies.
The committee has undertaken a great amount of work around the government’s funding and delivery of elderly care, in order to address the concerns expressed in resolutions passed at the 2003 Annual Representatives Meeting. This included a review of research material on the current level and anticipated future demand for social care provision in the UK compared to other countries.
As a result of this work, we wrote to the Department of Health seeking clarification on the future government funding of long-term care and highlighted both the views expressed by the Royal Commission concerning the funding, or non-funding, of free personal care and also EU research, which showed an anticipated shortfall in government expenditure in relation to the projected long-term care needs of an ageing population in the UK.
The department’s response was disappointing: it defended the government’s position on the non-funding of free personal care in England but did not address the potential problems in the future funding of long-term care, as highlighted in the research findings. I will be writing to the department again requesting that they address the Association’s concerns over the current closure of care homes due to inadequate financial support from local authorities and the government’s plans to address future bed capacity issues. The committee will also continue to monitor issues concerned with delayed discharges from acute hospital beds
The committee’s discussion paper on continuing NHS care was circulated to all Local Medical Committees (LMCs) and Local Negotiating Committees (LNCs) with a covering letter outlining the key issues for consideration by medical practitioners. The BMA will also continue its dialogue with the department on areas such as assessment criteria and the Single Assessment Process for Older People.
A BMA response was co-ordinated to the healthcare recommendations from the Victoria Climbié Inquiry. The committee considered the Green Paper Every Child Matters which set out the government’s plans to reform children’s services in response to Lord Laming’s findings. Members also examined the Children’s Bill and the implementation of Children’s Trusts, which will become the local vehicles for delivering much of the government’s legislation covering children and young people from birth to 19 living in England. The Committee noted that current BMA policy recommends the introduction of an independent Children’s Commissioner, with separate but linked commissioners for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
The profile of carers has continued to be raised through the Working with carers: guidelines for good practice document and we are pleased to see that the government have recently introduced the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Bill, which focuses on health, employment and life-long learning issues for carers. We are concerned with what appear to be government’s attempts to water down what began as an excellent Bill and will be monitoring the progress of this legislation closely.
The committee continues to monitor the National Service Frameworks for Older People, Mental Health and Children and has also examined a wide range of issues referred from other BMA committees and government bodies, such as: the National Care Standards Commission’s policy on the administering of non-prescription medicines (‘homely remedies’) in care homes; the House of Commons Health Select Committee’s April report on elder abuse and the implementation issues in connection with the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003. We also await an announcement from the government on their revisions to the Draft Mental Health Bill.
Finally, I have decided that I will not be standing for re-election as Chairman for 2004-05. I would therefore like to thank all the committee members, representatives from the co-opted organisations such as Carers UK and the Royal College of Nursing and also the Council Secretariat, for their administrative support.
I would also like to thank Barry Christie and Kumi Patel for their excellent support. They have helped enormously to make the work of the committee relevant and effective