A SIGNIFICANT decrease in the region’s care home capacity in the last ten years is a key consideration within the current engagement work focused on Intermediate Care.
The number of care homes in the region has decreased from 45 in 2012 to stand at 31 in 2022, while the number of registered care home places has fallen from 1288 to 1062.
This reduction in care home provision is similar to the rest of Scotland, which has seen a 20 per cent decrease over the same period, but the overall trend in Dumfries and Galloway has been one of consolidation – with fewer, larger care homes.
David Rowland, Director of Strategic Planning and Transformation at Dumfries and Galloway Health and Social Care Partnership, said: “We recognise the need to take a new approach to intermediate care in our region, and our engagement programme Right Care, Right Place: Intermediate Care is designed to help us do just that.
“The challenges faced by Dumfries and Galloway around care home capacity are real, and we must work together to find innovative solutions to ensure that everyone has access to the care they need, when they need it, and in the place that is right for them.
“Our Right Care, Right Place engagement programme provides lots of information to consider, including the fact that we have an increasingly older population and a shrinking working age population – and what that means for care home provision as well as Intermediate Care as a whole.
“We are committed to working with our partners, including local communities, to co-develop a new model for Intermediate Care that takes into account the unique needs and circumstances of our region.
“And we have planned engagement with care home owners to develop local capacity in line with need, and also to ensure our care home models of the future reflect what we hear from our local communities in terms of how they want to see intermediate care delivered.
“We believe that by taking a person-centred approach, we can create a model that truly puts the needs of people first and ensures that they receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.”
Right Care, Right Place engagement began late last week, and is continuing on to the beginning of March.
It offers a mixture of in-person, drop-in engagement sessions within communities, as well as online engagement sessions and an online survey.
Upcoming drop-in engagement sessions:
- 09 February from 2.00pm to 7.00pm – Lockerbie Town Hall
- 10 February 2023 at 1.00pm to 6.00pm – Newton Stewart Initiative Centre
- 13 February 2023 at 1.00pm to 6.00pm – Council Offices, Daar Road, Kirkcudbright
- 14 February 2023 at 1.00pm to 6.00pm – Moffat Town Hall
- 16 February 2023 at 2.00pm to 6.00pm – Castle Douglas Town Hall
- 17 February 2023 at 2.00pm to 7.00pm – Corner House Hotel, Annan
- 20 February 2023 at 2.00pm to 7.00pm – The Bridge, Dumfries
- 21 February 2023 at 2.00pm to 7.00pm – Sanquhar Community Centre
- 02 March 2023 at 2.00pm to 7.00pm – Buccleuch and Queensberry Arms in Thornhill
All those attending will be offered the opportunity to either have short, focused exchanges to capture their thoughts, or the alternative of longer, in-depth discussions.
There will be a range of information on offer to help define and detail the work being undertaken, and support people to provide their view on Intermediate Care from an informed perspective.
If someone can’t attend an event in person, they can take part in one of the following virtual events, by emailing [email protected] for an invitation.
- 15 February 2023 – 10.30am to 12pm
- 01 March 2023 – 9.00am to 10.30am
Intermediate Care describes what help people are accessing between an acute hospital setting and what they are able to manage independently at home.
It can be about helping people remain at home when they’re becoming more dependent on care, or helping them to recover from illness, a fall or an operation. It can be about preventing people from going into hospital unnecessarily, or returning home more quickly after a hospital stay.
Key locations involved in the delivery of Intermediate Care in Dumfries and Galloway include its care homes, facilities which offer respite care, and cottage hospitals.
More details on Right Care, Right Place: Intermediate Care can be found by visiting the following website, where the online survey can be completed: www.dghscp.co.uk/rightcarerightplace
Mr Rowland said: “We’d encourage everyone to go to the website to find out more about Right Care, Right Place: Intermediate Care and either plan to attend one of our engagement sessions or look to complete the survey.
“It will take time to capture people’s thoughts and ideas, and to reflect these in the plans we develop to ensure our future services are best placed to meet the wide range of ever-changing need within our communities.”
