(Fareham)
(Con):...Those are real, tangible reflections of
increased Government funding and the commitment from local
communities, as well as of real progress at national
and local levels. All this has been achieved with Hampshire,
and indeed Fareham, having one of the lowest council tax rates in
the country. So, despite continued pressure and
demand, Hampshire County Council and Fareham
Borough Council have been able to maintain some excellence in the
delivery of public services through prudent financial planning.
I need to provide some context here. That £4.7 million compares
with an estimated growth of at least £10 million, at the same
time as Hampshire County Council needs to remove
£43 million from the adult health and care department to cope
with £45 million of extra costs, mainly due to buying in care
from the private market. That cost has gone up partly due to
pressure from the national living wage. All of that combined
means that Hampshire faces serious financial challenges on the
horizon, and support will be needed through the spending
review.
Despite the evidence of that undeniable progress, I also need to
talk about the human impact when things sadly go wrong. I have
now met too many residents in Fareham who have found the
continuing healthcare application system nebulous, harsh and
expensive. In some cases, this has been heartbreaking. My
constituent, John White, came to see me about his experience of
caring for his elderly sister-in-law who was suffering with
Alzheimer’s disease. Funding applications were initially rejected
by the West Hampshire clinical commissioning group. There was a
lack of co-ordination between the CCG and Hampshire
County Council, and the appeals process was severely
delayed. Only after six years of trying was funding
retrospectively granted. Sadly, that was too late, as Mr White’s
sister-in-law had by that time passed away. Mr White’s case is
not an isolated one. The application process is not
patient-friendly, and families and carers can be treated with
suspicion rather than support. I am hearing from constituents
that the process and rules are designed in such a way that only a
few applications are successful at the first attempt. Many people
simply do not have the energy to keep fighting the system and are
beaten into submission.
I fully appreciate that the difficult financial circumstances in
which the Government found themselves in 2010 are ultimately the
root cause of the problems we see today. I am grateful to the
Minister for Care, with whom I have raised Mr White’s case, and
to the Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and
Local Government, my hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks)
(Rishi Sunak), who has met Hampshire MPs and Hampshire
County Council to discuss the county’s funding, and I
know how hard they are working to improve the system at central
Government level. However, the process and the structure need
urgent reform to improve co-ordination between healthcare
providers and clinical commissioning groups and to improve
patient experience. We need to act now, so that the Government’s
undeniable commitment to the elderly and vulnerable is not
squandered and so that patients are rightly put at the heart of
how our social care and NHS services are delivered. I have no
doubt about this Government’s commitment, and I know that we can
do better...
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