The state of social care: the reality of a fragmented system

Some clinical commissioning groups, handed responsibilities by the 2012 Health and Social Care Act, were convinced that proactive, integrated care closer to home was the answer. Inspired by reported success in places such as Torbay, GPs were going to wrap a holistic package of health and social care around frail older people. They predicted that patients and their families would plan for crises in advance and hospital admissions would fall. Frail older patients would be discharged earlier and delayed transfers of care would be a thing of the past, with Emergency Frailty Units providing rapid and comprehensive geriatric assessment with early discharge home. Joining with social care in a virtuous circle of quality improvement, hundreds of hospital beds could be closed and the money invested in care closer to home.