The Scottish Government has joined forces with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to launch the country’s Health and Social Care Winter Preparedness Plan earlier than ever this year, as NHS Scotland looks to give boards and providers as much time as possible to prepare for the anticipated surges in demand.
Last year’s winter preparedness plan was launched a month later, with this year’s detailing four main priorities for health and social care chiefs this festive season. They are to:
- prioritise care for all people in communities and utilise prevention methods to avoid admissions;
- ensure patients receive the right care in the right place at the right time, as close to home as possible;
- maximise capacity and capability to meet demand and maintain integrated health as well as social care and social work services; and
- focus on supporting the wellbeing of the health and social care workforce, ultimately improving retention.
Winter actions
As leaders look to keep people out of hospital as much as possible, the NHS 24 service is set to benefit from a record number of call handlers, which will help deliver an extra 150,000 calls per year and direct people to the most appropriate avenue of care, avoiding unnecessary A&E attendances.
Other key moves include bettering discharge planning for those in acute or community hospitals, maintaining established care at home packages and a government-led discharge response team to support NHS boards in need of assistance.
Much like the groundbreaking RSV campaign in England, this is also the first time the virus will feature in one of Scotland’s annual winter vaccination campaigns. Flexible working and mental health resources are signposted to help staff wellbeing as part of the plan too.
Learnings from previous winters
Its health and social care system will be “under more extreme pressure than ever before” according to Scottish leaders, who have emphasised that surge planning should not be reserved for just the winter months, but a year-round activity.
“As winter approaches, the NHS will see surges in demand across all health, social care and social work services,” commented Scotland’s health secretary Neil Gray. “Our joint-plan Winter Plan with COSLA is just one part of a wider programme of work to respond to heightened demand.”
Gray added: “We are prioritising frontline services with over £14.2bn investment in our boards this year - an almost 3% real terms uplift – and also investing £2bn in social care services.”
Health and social care spokesperson at COSLA, Councillor Paul Kelly, said: "Winter is often a time of exceptional pressure on our services so I am pleased that this plan, produced with our partners across the sector, reflects the challenges and the opportunities we face."
Read some of the latest news from NHS Scotland here.
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