Teams of home care workers will be recruited to keep people out of hospital, Burnham promises

A future Labour government would ask NHS hospitals, general practices, and social care services to evolve into single integrated care organisations that coordinate all of people’s care from one place, the shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham, has announced.

In a rousing speech at the party’s annual conference in Manchester on Wednesday 24 September, Burnham issued a rallying cry to the party, describing next year’s UK general election as a “battle for the soul of the NHS.”

Burnham said his plan to integrate health and social care in England, first mooted in early 2013,1 would be supported by £2.5bn (€3.2bn; $4.1bn) a year investment from the new “Time to Care Fund,” announced by Labour leader Ed Miliband in his keynote speech to the conference on 23 September.2

If implemented, said Burnham, the new system—informed by the Independent Commission on Whole Person Care3—would replace the “fragmented, privatised, demoralised service” overseen by the coalition government and …