Cornwall's critical incident in social care was declared to 'keep hospital services safe'
The council says it's about easing pressure at the front door and keeping patients out of hospital
Last updated 20th Jan 2022
The councillor responsible for social care in Cornwall has said that the decision to declare a critical incident was to help keep hospital services safe.
Andy Virr, Cabinet member for social care, who is also a consultant at Royal Cornwall Hospital, announced the critical incident in social care yesterday.
Dr Virr said: "The reason for declaring the incident is to work with our health colleagues to keep hospitals safe. That is about the pressure at the front door where ambulances are having to wait and, at the other end, keeping people out of hospital.
"When there are people waiting to be discharged that has an impact on the front door of the hospital, adult social care plays a key role in keeping people away from hospital".
The council announcement explained that it was looking to provide support for around 180 people who have finished their hospital treatment and would be working with care homes and homecare providers to help to do this.
In order to help the council is looking to redeploy some staff to help ease the pressure on adult social care.
Cllr Virr said: "We just don’t have enough workforce at the moment, demand is exceeding our supply of resources".
The Conservative councillor said that by declaring a critical incident it was hoped that people in the community might help and care for people who would be better off at home.
He said: "We are putting this message out to the community, we are very grateful to families who provide care but we are asking more people to help those who might be recently discharged from hospital".
There are also plans to reconfigure some care packages to ensure that resources can be adapted to help more people.
Cllr Virr said: "If someone has a package of care four times a day we will look at whether they can have two times a day instead. We are also aiming to have additional care homes and working with our NHS partners to ensure that patients are being discharged to the right place".
The Cabinet member said that it was not an issue of funding but one of having sufficient carer staff in place to help those in need of support.
He said that demand had increased significantly since last year: "We are working very hard to recruit staff. We offer good pay rates, higher than minimum wage, and have bonus payments for working in the winter.
"There is money in the system, although of course we would always welcome more, but the key issue is around staffing".
Asked whether care staff had been impacted by covid and having to self isolate he said: "It is a mix, we have increased demand with coming out of lockdown and with an ageing population and people living longer.
"We are also competing with a very competitive employment market at the moment. The hospitality industry in particular are offering people to come to work with them and some of those people might usually work in care. We are struggling to get enough workforce in".