Nexus Managing Director speaks out on the social care crisis

The social care crisis was a subject Nexus, Managing Director Tinga Umera commented on earlier this month.  

The £200 million funding announced by the Government to fund short-term care placements for patients was described as a ‘sticking plaster’ by Umera, the Director of Sutton-Coldfield-based Nexus Care Services. 

The funding, which was announced in January by health and social care secretary Steve Barclay, will pay for short-term care placements and will fund maximum stays of up to four weeks per patient until the end of March. 

The move aims to free up hospital beds so that people can be admitted more quickly from A&E to wards. 

“Once again, the Government has announced ‘new’ money which has come from existing healthcare budgets,” said Umera. “Instead of looking to construct a joined-up approach linking the health and social care sectors, as well as working with private-sector providers such as Nexus to ensure a joint approach, they have merely put a sticking plaster on the issue.” 

Nexus Care Services advocates a person-centred approach in doing as much as possible to maintain the individual receiving care, remains in their home, and receives support and care there for as long as possible. 

“All too often the overarching trend is to move people from their long-term home into a care or nursing home after they had a spell in hospital. In placing these people in short-term care for four weeks or so, the Government are simply trying to find a quick fix to negative headlines, rather than doing what is best for older people needing care,” said Umera.