A FUND worth £200m to improve the care of Scotland's growing elderly population has been promised by the Scottish Government.
Shona Robison, Scottish Health Secretary, announced the extra money promising it would deliver a "landmark change" to the way people are looked after.
The cash will be ploughed into the new health and social care partnerships, which are bringing together NHS and council care services.
Hospitals are already struggling to cope with the number of elderly people who need beds. By merging health and social services the Scottish Government is hoping to improve the way people are looked after in the community, helping them to avoid hospital admissions and to get home again smoothly if they are admitted.
Ms Robison said: "The integration of health and social care services is one of the most ambitious programmes of work this Government has undertaken, and one which we believe will deliver sustainable health and social care services for the future that are centred around the needs of patients. "
She added: "Such a substantial change to the way our health service is run needs substantial investment to make it a success, and I'm pleased to be able to announce today an additional £200m over two years to help partnerships achieve their ambitions."
The partnerships have already been promised £100m from the Integrated Care Fund for 2015-16. The extra cash will be rolled out over the following two years.
Councillor Peter Johnston, health and social care spokesman for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, said: "Cosla has been in negotiations with the Scottish government around the continuation of the Integrated Care Fund and we are pleased that our arguments have won the day. There is clearly a huge challenge ahead of us in making the integration agenda a success within the current unprecedented financial climate. But we believe that partnership between councils and NHS boards will be a crucial part in achieving this."
The new partnerships will be taking over responsibility for delivering adult health and social care services during the course of the next year. Plans outlining how they will operate have to be complete by the end of this month and they have to be fully up and running by April next year.
With Greater Manchester recently announcing a deal which brings together the £6bn NHS and social care budget for the region, Ms Robison boasted: "Only now are other parts of the UK waking up to the need for change, and the need for integrated services, which in Scotland we have been working towards for the last few years."
She stressed the change was about improving people's quality of life - particularly those with long term conditions. By 2037, the number of people aged 65 and over in Scotland will increase by 59% and the number with a chronic health problem by 83%.
The Herald's NHS: Time for Action campaign has been calling for a clear plan showing the way capacity needs to grow in the NHS and the community to meet the needs of the future elderly population.
Ms Robison's announcement follows months of concern about the pressure on hospitals, with hundreds of patients having to wait for more than 12 hours in A&E departments because of the bed shortages this winter. Repeated rises in the number of patients stuck in ward beds waiting for care packages to be organised for them in the community have also been exposed.
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