OXFORDSHIRE County Council claims that cuts to the adult social care budget will have no effect on the bed-blocking crisis.
Oxfordshire is ranked 146th out of 151 councils for bed-blocking – and is also one of the worst-ranked for funding adult social care.
The reason people are being kept in hospital unnecessarily – some for as long as 138 days – is that there is no funding to take care of them at home.
Some might never have needed to go to hospital to begin with if this funding were in place.
Meanwhile, people who do need acute hospital care cannot get it, because our hospitals are full.
November’s report from the primary care trust confirms what ought to be obvious: under-investment is to blame. And yet the council’s answer is to cut funding still further.
This is a rich county in a rich country. The council is both legally and morally obliged to meet the assessed needs of patients.
People are suffering because the council is not meeting those obligations.
MARCUS PITCAITHLY, Oxfordshire Green Party
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