24 February 2011
Councils and primary care trusts could save money and keep more people independent for longer if they combined health and social care records, a leading health think-tank said today.
Researchers at the Nuffield Trust say that linking council and PCT data would enable local authorities to predict which individuals were likely to need intensive social care in the future. Councils could then take early action to help those individuals stay in their own homes as long as possible.
The principle already exists in the NHS. Many PCTs work to identify patients that are likely to come into repeated contact with health services and subsequently work with them to cut hospital admissions.
The Nuffield Trust’s report, Predicting social care costs: a feasibility study, published today, recommends piloting a record sharing system across the country.
Martin Bardsley, report author and head of research at the think-tank, said: ‘Linking patients’ information in this way has real potential to improve the quality of care patients receive.
‘The prize is not only greater independence for older people, but also significant potential cost savings for health and social care budgets – critical as UK public services enter a period of constrained funding.’
But the report also says that more clarity is needed on what information can legally be shared between organisations, while social care data should be recorded and coded more consistently.
