Our response to CQC's report on integrated care for older people

Today, the Care Quality Commission have published their report 'Building bridges, breaking barriers'. The report into integrated care for older people highlights many of the issues we found in our work on unsafe discharge last year including:

• A lack of coordination between services

• People not feeling involved in decisions made about their care

• People not feeling that they're given the information that they need

In response to the report our Interim Chair, Jane Mordue, said:

“The CQC’s report has shed further light on many of the issues that we uncovered in our report, Safely Home, last year. While it is encouraging that so many local health leaders are committed to delivering integrated care, it is clear that there are still many barriers in place preventing patients and their families from receiving the care and support that they need.

“In our conversations with the public, we have heard widespread support for the use of care navigators, joined-up thinking and data-sharing between health and social care services to stop people from having to repeat their stories and, perhaps most importantly, the meaningful involvement of patients and their carers in decision-making about their care needs.

“People’s experiences when leaving hospital can provide a good measure of how successfully care services are integrated. If things are done right, services should see reduced bed days, reduced readmissions and better recovery times – results that are good for the NHS as well as the patient.”