Gloucester MP Richard Graham has written to the Prime Minister urging her to consider a joint Parliamentary Commission on Health and Social Care. Welcoming the pilot project for integrated care in Gloucester, Richard said, “these pilots are an excellent first step looking at how we can join up health and social care. Now it’s time for us to look at this in greater detail on a national scale.”
Richard signed the letter urging for an independent commission to look not just at funding, but also at prevention and better addressing demand, as well as productivity and quality improvement. The Commission would also engage directly with the public in a national discussion on health and social care.
Richard said, “these issues are so often linked up, and will be increasingly so with our ageing population. We should have a national conversation about our health service and how we want it to work, especially if it is to remain free at the point of service and still be sustainable for future generations.”
Responding to the letter, the Prime Minister Theresa May wrote, “I agree care is still not sufficiently integrated for people who have both health and social care needs. That is why I created the Department for Health and social Care at the reshuffle. The work on the Green Paper on Social Care is well under way. Whilst the plan above focuses on the NHS, I am very clear that the long term plan for the NHS must be joined up with social care and prevention even though responsibility for these issues lies across the NHS, central and local government.”
