The so-called bed blocking crisis that Dr Alf brings to our attention is as a result of too many people under local authority care ending up in hospital for one affliction after another, and there not being sufficient local authority care home spaces for them due to “savage cuts” via the UK government on local authorities.
The worst run local authorities, often in Wales and in Labour controlled areas have worker productivity at less than the public sector average of 32% and allow their work-forces to grow bloated with people doing non-jobs. That drives up the wage bill, making it impossible to maintain services within a limited cash envelope.
With council mergers to say twelve unitary authorities for England, one for Wales , one for Scotland and one for Northern Ireland and with districts and boroughs abolished, with peripheral services outsourced, we would have fewer costly CEO’s and service directorates and more than enough money to pay for Adult Social Care under the present de-merged system. By doing this and merging Adult Social Care into the reformed NHS and applying an aggressive re-enablement regime to the former Adult Social Care recipients, we could reduce dependency on the system by 33%.
Prescribing Pilates, Tai Chi and Yoga to create suppleness and a better range of movement would reduce dependency on the NHS further and educating people to take more responsibility for their own health and weight would eliminate bed blocking altogether.
Dr Alf's Blog 