Meals on Wheels, which provides tens of thousands of vulnerable people with essential hot meals, faces collapse without government intervention in the UK, experts have warned.
The National Catering Association (NACC) found that only 29 per cent of services are still running in the UK and less than 18 per cent in England as local services are cut.
Local governments are not required by law to offer such a program, which provides meals to elderly and disabled residents. Therefore, municipalities may decide to eliminate services to save money.
But a report by the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) shows that malnutrition, which leads to long hospital stays, costs British taxpayers £19 billion a year.
Meals on Wheels services help vulnerable people live independently in the community, reducing the risk of malnutrition, loneliness or social isolation. In addition to at least one nutritious hot meal a day, regular care contacts help reduce avoidable health and care costs and also support informal carers.
NACC is calling on the Government to ensure that communities receive urgent funding to directly support the continuation of existing Meals on Wheels services, including direct funding to restore Meals on Wheels services lost in recent years that need to be reinstated. The group also wants ministers to see securing the future as their legal responsibility.
NACC, along with several other signatories including Age UK and Care England, wrote to MPs on Monday expressing their concerns about the future of Meals on Wheels services and the far-reaching and potentially catastrophic consequences if this were to happen. to be in danger. Older and more vulnerable people living in our communities will be completely lost.
Neil Radia, chairman of the NACC, said: “With local authorities facing a funding gap of around £7 billion for adult social care, cutting a service that is relatively inexpensive because it provides vulnerable adults with multiple lines of support offers, frankly, cheap reduction”. The benefits of the service far outweigh the costs. Eliminating preventive services for the most vulnerable in our communities is shortsighted.
“We need the government to act and provide communities with the resources they need to ensure they don’t have to choose between long-term preventive services for older people facing these problems. At the same time, we need to be aware that this approach increases government costs by forcing vulnerable people into expensive hospital or hospital care.”
The government has been contacted for comment.
Source: I News
I’m Raymond Molina, a professional writer and journalist with over 5 years of experience in the media industry. I currently work for 24 News Reporters, where I write for the health section of their news website. In my role, I am responsible for researching and writing stories on current health trends and issues. My articles are often seen as thought-provoking pieces that provide valuable insight into the state of society’s wellbeing.