New model needed to tackle crisis

HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE EMERGENCY DECLARED

- MARC MCLEAN

The failing health and social care system in Dumfries and Galloway needs to be ripped up and replaced in order to save elderly people from dying needlessly in hospital.

This was the plea last week from one councillor as Dumfries and Galloway Council officially declared a health and social care emergency in the region.

With a £58 million funding shortfall for health and social care in Dumfries and Galloway, both NHS and council chiefs are faced with making unthinkable cuts at a time when services are already buckling under demand.

Demand for emergency care is rising, there are ongoing bed blocking issues in hospital, fewer care home places are available, and there are a lack of care-at-home packages in the community for an ageing population.

One solution councillors want to see explored is the potential use of suitable, patient-friendly hotels in the region to ease delayed discharges from hospital.

Describing the situation as a "social crisis", Castle Douglas and Crocketford Councillor Pauline Drysdale tabled a motion at last week's full council meeting calling for a health and social care emergency to be announced.