Hunt: Long-term care is biggest challenge
The Health Secretary has said the NHS is not set up to deal with people who suffer from complex, long-term condition
In a speech to the Age UK conference For Later Life: Better Health and Care in Tough Times, Jeremy Hunt said 15 million people have long-term conditions such as dementia, diabetes or asthma.
“This is a huge challenge for an NHS set up primarily to deal with one-off events and curable illnesess like cancer or a broken leg.
“Unlike when the NHS was set up 65 years ago, now more than half of GP appointments and two-thirds of outpatient A&E visits are for people with long-term illnesses.
“This group, many of whom are older people, are now responsible for 70% of the total health and care budget, over £70bn every year and that number is growing.”
He added that the situation is not “sustainable or acceptable”.
“For those of us determined to ensure the NHS provides the best care in the world,” he said.
"There are simply too many cases where people with long-term conditions do not get the medicines, the checks or the support they need.
"They, or their relatives, end up having to put their energy into fighting the system instead of fighting their illness."
Mr Hunt also blamed the last Government for the increased demand at A&E.
“When I have been visiting A&Es in recent weeks, hard-working staff talk about the same issues: lack of beds to admit people, poor out-of-hours GP services, inaccessible primary care and a lack of co-ordination across the health system," he said.
"The decline in out-of-hours care follows the last government's disastrous changes to the GP contract, since when we have seen four million more people using A&E every year.”
"We must address these system failures, and I am determined we will.”
