The RNHA has called for an emergency cash injection by the government into social care so that local authorities can purchase more care home places to alleviate the £900 million bed blocking crisis hitting NHS acute hospitals. This follows a report last week from the government's NHS efficiency 'trouble-shooter' Lord Carter calling for greater collaboration between hospital trusts and the social care sector so that patients needing a form of intermediate care after a hospital stay can be transferred more quickly into community settings, including care homes.

A recently published ResPublica 'think tank' report describes how up to £3.3 billion is likely to have been wasted by 2021 on keeping patients in hospital who, from a medical perspective, no longer need to be there. The report, which calls for the money being spent on 'bed blocking' to be diverted into improved social care, has been broadly welcomed by organisations ranging from the GMB union to many large care providers, as well as by older people's champion Baroness Bakewell and Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, Chair of the Health Select Committee.

The RNHA has expressed concern at a motion passed last week-end by BMA's special conference of Local Medical Committees to change the basis on which GPs provide services to care home residents. Said RNHA chief executive officer Frank Ursell: "The statement issued by the BMA makes it sound as though GPs are being routinely called upon to provide the highly specialised treatment that hospital consultants and their teams should be providing. "That is not how we, in the care home sector, see it. Moving into a care home because their overall health and well-being requires them to do so should not deny our residents access to the full range of primary care services they would otherwise receive if they were still at home."

A free resource pack for helping care home providers to improve medicines management and maintain safe working practices is now available.? This? follows collaboration between several major national bodies, including the RNHA and other members of the Care Providers Alliance, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, the Royal College of GPs, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the RCN.? The final report from this joint project, which has been supported with funding by the Department of Health, is also available. ?

Around 160 care homes were involved in the testing of prototype resources.? The pack includes information about the leadership role that registered managers need to take in this field; guidance on staff training and how to prevent medication errors; a range of other useful tools for staff; and materials aimed at residents including a charter about their rights and the help they should expect with medicines from their doctor, pharmacist and care staff.

Most of the care home residents who took part in a study by the Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) at the University of Kent told researchers that their actual experience of living in a care home had been better than they expected.? Funding for the study was provided by the RNHA and the Department of Health.? Click to download a copy of the full report or a summary version.

RNHA conferences were held in November in both London and Birmingham to discuss key issues related to nursing in nursing homes, including DoLS applications; CQC inspections; using dependency level assessments to determine staffing requirements throughout the 24-hour cycle; ?Nursing and Midwifery Council revalidation; and the Gold Standards Framework for end of life care. ?

Nursing homes provide 24-hour care to nearly 200,000 people across the UK, many with multiple and often complex health problems. In this section of our web site, you can obtain up-to-date information and comment about, or relevant to, the sector from different sources including the RNHA, Counsel and Care, Brunswick?s Health Review and a range of other organisations and individuals.

On 8th December 2009 the Care Quality Commission published new guidance to help providers of adult social care comply with the relevant regulations governing their business.? Click here for Summary of Regulations, Outcomes and Judgement Framework.? Click here for Essential Standards of Quality and Safety.? Click here for Judgement Framework.