- Conference
- 2008 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 13 December 2007
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes the recent moves towards increasing the integration between health and social care in government policy in Scotland, England and Wales and notes that health care and social care are already fully integrated in Northern Ireland.
Conference is concerned that moves towards further integration may have a huge impact on staff terms and conditions as well as having long-term implications for patients and the NHS.
Conference in particular expresses its concern that the integration of health and social care may blur the boundary between free health care and means-tested social care.
Conference notes the government’s commitment to the rollout of individual budgets in England, following pilots in social care and expresses its strongest opposition to the introduction of any further means-testing into health care which would occur if individual budgets were to cover health services as well as social care.
Conference is concerned that the use of individual budgets may mean that patients’ access to or take-up of valuable services in the allied health professions such as occupational therapy will be reduced if these services are sidelined or ignored through a lack of knowledge of their value and as a result patient care will suffer.
Patient care may also suffer if patients are encouraged to buy directly from product manufacturers that may be more interested in selling products rather than accurately assessing the needs of clients through the specialist knowledge of occupational therapists.
Conference believes that rigorous independent evaluation of the social care pilots is vital before any decisions on roll-out in that sector are made and restates its commitment to a publicly-owned health service, free at the point of need.
Conference therefore calls on the Health Service Group Executive, where appropriate working with branches, regions, other service groups, the disabled members committee and relevant pressure groups, to:
1)develop an effective recruitment and organisation strategy that takes into account the specific needs of integrated environments;
2)provide guidance and training to branches on the integration process to enable them to deal effectively with members’ concerns both before and after integration;
3)campaign to highlight the value of services such as occupational therapy and the possible danger that individual budgets pose to its continuation;
4)campaign vigorously against the introduction of any further means-testing into healthcare via the introduction of individual budgets.