10. Short Debate The role of community hospitals in 21st century healthcare

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:43 pm on 7 February 2018.

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Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 5:43, 7 February 2018

Thank you, Caroline, for bringing the short debate to the Chamber today. I think you could argue that the health service has been characterised in this way—that hospitals are very difficult to get into, and then it's very difficult to get out of them again. One of the reasons we lost our community beds was because of the risk of institutionalisation, and I think all of us, as Caroline has mentioned, really, are seeing more and more cases where individuals are getting institutionalised in the acute expensive beds in district general hospitals rather than in the local beds.

Having said that, the parliamentary review gives us some scope for hope here. My main concern with that remains that social care—or let's just call it 'care' because, actually, you're confusing that with medical care—I think it's sometimes our difficulty—and concentrate a little bit more on where care can be carried out more locally, which I know is the principle behind the review, and in the meantime not necessarily look to spare spaces in care homes as the step-down provision, as we're seeing a lot at the moment. Because, as you know, some individuals who go to the care home for step-down care never leave. Thank you.