An important report from the Welsh Assembly’s Health, Social Care & Sport Committee on winter pressures which quotes extensively from the evidence given by Care Forum Wales.

Download a copy of the report here.

The first recommendation is that the Cabinet Secretary and Minister should, as a matter of priority, focus their attention on the greater integration of the health and social care sectors, both in the planning and delivery of services.

The NHS, social care and independent sectors must be key players in this work. We await the response from Welsh Government with interest.

Mario Kreft has responded on behalf of Care Forum Wales calling for the authorities to put “prejudice” about the private sector to one side to solve the crisis facing the NHS this winter.

He stressed the need for everybody to work in partnership following the publication of a report by the Welsh Assembly Health, Social Care and Sport Committee into ‘winter preparedness’.

Mr Kreft (pictured) said the key findings chimed with what Care Forum Wales had been saying for many years.

The report’s first recommendation was that there needed to be more integration between the health and social care sectors and that, crucially, the independent sector needed to be part of the solution.

The report also highlighted concerns about the financial viability of the sector in the light of care home closures, the problem of domiciliary care contracts being handed back to local authorities and the need for improved training.