Pat on the back for health workers

The York-born cabinet minister has written to social services in both York and North Yorkshire and North Yorkshire Health Authority to congratulate them on the way they worked together to look after elderly people over Christmas.

Social services teams from both councils put in a joint bid with the health authority for extra government cash to make sure hospital beds were not blocked by elderly people who did not need to be there.

A damning Audit Commission report published last year claimed nearly half of all hospital beds around the country were filled by people over 75 who could be looked after in their own homes.

But lack of co-ordination between health and social workers meant they often remained stuck in hospital blocking beds, or were needlessly assigned to nursing or residential homes, the report said.

Staff in North Yorkshire used extra government cash - part of a £300 million national pot - to provide better home care and assessment of elderly people's needs so they could stay in their own homes.

The rest of the cash went to making sure nursing home places were available for those who had been treated in hospital but were ready to move out.

For the first time, health staff were also given details of "on call" social workers over the Christmas and New Year period to ensure better co-operation in looking after the elderly.

Mr Dobson's letter said: "Monitoring reports conform that the agreements have worked extremely well and the money allocated for winter pressures has had an impact on improving joint working between health and social services.

"I hope that the achievements of the past few months will be maintained so that in future services will be much better equipped to deal with the pressures which can be expected during the winter months."

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