Without integrated care within five years we risk another Mid Staffs, warns government

The UK government has set out ambitious plans to fully integrate health and social care in England within five years, in a new blueprint hailed by ministers as a landmark moment in the future of the NHS.

The coalition government has pledged to establish new integrated care arrangements in every area of the country by 2015, with a view to fully integrating healthcare and social care by 2018.

The plans will be kickstarted by 10 “pioneer” areas around the country, which will be chosen by September 2013 to take the lead in testing “innovative, practical approaches” to integration, with other areas then encouraged to follow.

The government said that the move to accelerate integrated care across England was essential to stop the NHS from “buckling under the pressure” of an ageing population …