Community services are vital to the NHS, they must speak out on its future

Community services are vital to the NHS, they must speak out on its future Transforming care outside hospitals is Jeremy Hunt’s ‘biggest priority’ but community services are held back by a failure to make themselves heard

Community services should be at the centre of debate about the future of the NHS. Patient focused, cost-effective and at the forefront of prevention and early intervention, they are crucial to making the health service sustainable in the face of rising demand. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt even described transforming care outside hospitals as his “biggest priority”. But community services are being held back by the relentless focus on hospitals and their own failure to make themselves heard.

There is a huge spectrum of community services, from children’s care to re-ablement, mental health support, falls prevention, podiatry, speech and language therapy, wound care, continence, dementia care and palliative care. It includes community nurses, therapists, pharmacists, and sometimes social workers. Most of it takes place in people’s homes. Continue reading... The Guardian