“We are already seeing Lord Darzi’s vision to put quality at the heart of care becoming a reality across the country, but we can go further. By making NHS services truly people-centred and ensuring that patients have access to high quality, integrated and efficient community services, the NHS could save up to £2.7 billion a year – meaning a [...]

Councils will struggle to cope with the financial challenge posed by England’s ageing population and could miss opportunities to innovate and save, according to a report from the Audit Commission called ‘Under Pressure’. The report said that most councils don’t know enough about the costs of their ageing population and they could do more to [...]

A row has erupted between the three main political parties before a health summit tomorrow aimed at securing an agreement on funding old people’s care. Wrangling broke out after a Conservative health spokesman admitted the Tories needed more money to keep the elderly at home and would offer people a range of insurance schemes to [...]

On the third leg of his tour highlighting good practice in care and support, Care Services Minister Phil Hope travelled to Yorkshire to visit a telecare project that is helping people to live safely in their own homes. Greenfield Court in Harrogate is a complex of ten homes, called “wise homes”, for older people. The [...]

In pursuit of a gripping headline, Brown has scuppered a fair, sensible and long-term plan for care of the elderly Here was such a sound and solid piece of policymaking, rare long-term thinking about a wicked issue you wouldn’t expect just before an election. There might be few votes in it, with a political risk [...]