NHS leaders have called for sustainable funding for social care to relieve pressure on hospitals in Wales.

In a briefing paper over 50 leaders surveyed said the crisis in the social care workforce was having an impact on patient care and safety.

One leader commented: “People are having to stay in hospital longer, leading to impaired outcomes, ambulance delays, as flow through the hospital/healthcare system is slower and delayed.”

Welsh NHS Confederation is calling on the government to:

• Provide sustainable funding for social care with a fully funded pay rise to enable recruitment and retention, alongside greater overall investment and career progression opportunities.

• Support better integration between health and social services to achieve seamless care and support for the patient.

• Provide sufficient, ring-fenced funding and longer-term investment to transform out of hospital care and allow for long-term service development.

• Publish locality-based delayed discharge data so there is clear information and evidence of the current issues in providing packages of care to people leaving hospital.

• Introduce performance measures that focus on quality-based outcomes, prevention, community services and whole-system collaboration.

A Welsh government spokesperson said: “We have invested significantly to support the recruitment and retention of social care staff in Wales and have mounted an intensive recruitment campaign over the summer months.

“We introduced the real living wage for social care workers earlier this year, making £43 million of funding available for 2022/23, and will consider the impact of real living wage uplift as part of the Draft Budget planning for 2023-24. We continue to work with the sector through the Social Care Fair Work Forum to improve terms and conditions.

“Local authorities are working with health boards to increase community bed capacity for the winter.”