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    06

    Oct 2023

    Last Updated: 06/10/2023
    Health
    Health

    Council to bid for £1.7m emergency funding for hospital discharges

    by Calvin Robinson Chief Reporter

    | 06 Oct, 2023
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    hospitalae
    Emergency department at Harrogate District Hospital.

    North Yorkshire Council looks set to bid for up to £1.7 million worth of funding to help ease pressure on hospital emergency departments.

    The Department of Health and Social Care has invited local authorities to apply for grants to help with discharges in social care, which in turn will support accident and emergency units.

    Ministers have allocated North Yorkshire as one of the authority areas which has the “greatest health and care challenges”.

    The government has given the council an indicative funding amount of £1.1 million, but has encouraged it to apply for up to £1.7 million.

    A report by Abigail Barron, assistant director for prevention and service development at the council, has proposed a number of measures as part of the council’s bid.

    Among them include employing additional agency social workers to speed up discharge allocations, establishing winter grants for the voluntary sector to help with prevention and developing additional support for unpaid carers.

    Ms Barron said the measures would help to “avoid hospital admissions and expedite discharge and flow”.

    She added:

    “The schemes will also assist North Yorkshire Council's strategic objective of both supporting hospital discharge and reducing reliance on short stay residential beds.”





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    The move comes after Harrogate District Hospital managers raised concern that patients were staying in hospital longer than they should because of a lack of private care services.

    Last year, Jonathan Coulter, chief executive at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, said the issue had a knock on effect on emergency departments and was the “biggest issue” that the trust faced.

    In September 2022, the trust also outlined plans to launch its own home care service in a bid to free up hospital beds.

    At the time, the move was met with some concern by councillors who said it could “distort the market”.