Care Quality Commission (CQC) – 5 Factors affecting the sustainability of good care
5 factors affecting the sustainability of good care
The challenge for all local health and social care services is to recognise the needs of their local populations and find sustainable solutions that put people first. In this context, we have considered 5 factors that affect the sustainability of good care for people:
Access
Access to care varies from place to place across the country. Some people cannot access the services they need, or their only reasonable access is to providers with poor services.
Quality
The overall quality of care in the major health and care sectors has improved slightly. At the same time, too many people are getting care that is not good enough.
There were improvements in safety in adult social care services and among GP practices. But while there were also small safety improvements in NHS acute hospitals, too many need to do better. NHS mental health services also need to improve substantially.
Workforce
Workforce problems have a direct impact on people’s care. Getting the right workforce is crucial in ensuring services can improve and provide high-quality, person-centred care.
Each sector has its own workforce challenges, and many are struggling to recruit, retain and develop their staff to meet the needs of the people they care for.
Demand and capacity
Demand is rising, not only from an ageing population but from the increasing number of people living with complex, chronic or multiple conditions, such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease and dementia.
Providers face the challenge of finding the right capacity to meet people’s needs. Services need to plan – together – to meet the predicted needs of their local populations, as well planning for extremes of demand, such as sickness during winter and the impact this has on the system.
Funding and commissioning
Care providers need to be able to plan provision of services for populations with the right resources, so good funding and commissioning structures and decision-making should be in place to help boost the ability of health and social care services to improve.
Funding challenges of recent years are well known, and in June 2018 the government announced an extra £20.5 billion funding for the NHS by 2023/24. However, at the time of publication, there is no similar long-term funding solution for adult social care.