Member Article

Solve social care to fix the NHS, says CEO of leading care home group

If we want to solve the problems plaguing our NHS, we need to fix the crisis in social care.

So says the boss of one the UK’s largest care home providers.

With almost 7.1 million people waiting for treatment on the NHS*, record demand for healthcare services and unprecedented pressure on the social care system, James Tugendhat, chief executive of HC-One, which owns around 300 care homes, tells the Voices of Care Podcast:

“Put really simply, we’re not going to fix the backlog in the NHS and manage the waiting lists if we’re not able to ensure that we have the right discharges into social care. And so, if we can’t have enough people in social care, we’re not going to solve health care either.”

Later in the podcast Mr Tugendhat argues that the distinctions between health and social care have largely been arbitrary, going all the way back to the creation of the NHS in 1947, adding: “So much of social care now involves supporting really complex needs, including frailty and dementia. These are clinical conditions. There isn’t a real division between health and social care. It’s just one continuum.”

On the issue of recruitment, and the challenges for the sector on account of high vacancy rates, Mr Tugendhat speaks of a crisis that the sector will have to contend with for many years ahead driven by long-term trends towards ever more complex care:

“There’s no doubt that this is one of the toughest markets and one of the toughest set of circumstances anyone has in their living memory.

“So we’ve this really difficult combination of people now needing care after the disruption of COVID and so really strong demand for what we do and yet really few people to come and support us in giving that care.”

Elsewhere on the Newcross Healthcare Voices of Care podcast, Mr Tugendhat shares his thoughts on wellbeing, burnout within the workforce, international recruitment, the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on care workers and the importance of delivering person-centered care.

Separately, recent research conducted by YouGov for Newcross Healthcare, a leading provider of carers and nurses, found that 67% of those considering entering social care didn’t know how to navigate their way into the sector, while 38% of those working in the sector said their mental health has worsened over the last 12 months.

Hosted by healthcare expert Suhail Mirza, the podcast episode featuring James Tugendhat is available now alongside previous episodes in the series on the Newcross Healthcare website as well as onYouTube, Spotify, Apple and a range of other podcast platforms.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Healthcare News .