Elderly patients will get personal NHS worker to coordinate health care, pledges Jeremy Hunt

Health Secretary says each patient will have their own dedicated NHS worker.

 
Every vulnerable elderly person in England will have a personal NHS worker who will be responsible for co-ordinating all their heath and care needs, the Heath Secretary Jeremy Hunt promises today.

Warning in an interview with The Independent that dementia has replaced cancer as the biggest challenge facing the NHS, Mr Hunt said that the NHS must entirely overhaul the way it looks after elderly patients.

On Monday he will announce a review into all aspects of later-life care that is expected to bring forward recommendations in the autumn.

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Crisis-hit elderly care 'needs money now’

The Coalition will perpetrate a “cruel deception” on elderly people if ministers fail to provide more funding for long-term care to back up their promise to limit costs, the architect of the reforms has warned. 

 

Lord Warner, who designed the new cap on nursing-home fees, said that the elderly care system required more funding now.

But ministers warned of “the realities” facing the Treasury and said that social care could not be improved simply by throwing money at the system.

Currently, care costs are unlimited and abut 40,000 people a year are forced to sell their homes to cover the bills. One in 10 faces care fees of over £100,000.

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