A £30m investment is being rolled out to reduce pressure on hospitals, the Welsh Government has announced.
The funding will be funnelled into community care to help people recover at home more effectively, strengthen signposting to relevant services through more community workers, expanding the use of the latest technology so people can get faster care and more.
“I have told health boards that addressing the issue of delayed transfers of care needs to be their number one priority,” the Welsh minister for health and social care services, Eluned Morgan, said in a press conference announcing the funding.
The minister drew particular focus to the “unprecedented pressures” NHS Wales suffered last winter highlighting issues with hospital discharge and patient flow.
The government is now building on the additional 670 community beds it rolled out in a bid to go “further and faster” to reinvigorate the Welsh health sector.
“Because without improving the flow through hospitals almost all other aspects of health care, including waiting lists, will be impacted. This additional funding should help them with that challenge,” added Morgan.
The investment will also support the expanded provision of community nurses who will now be available for an extra 10 hours on weekends, improve community specialist palliative care and enable services to offer individual care plans for those most at risk.
“This isn’t about the workforce working harder – our amazing health and care staff are already doing everything they can – this is about how decision makers must reshape services so they are fit for the future,” Morgan further explained.
Responding to the announcement, the Welsh NHS Confederation's assistant director, Nesta Lloyd-Jones, said that, while the news is welcome, there needs to be more detail around where the extra resource will come from.
"As we know, we can't magic up a workforce overnight," said Lloyd-Jones.
