Wiltshire care system in 'worst winter ever known'
BBCHealth leaders in Wiltshire are warning pressures on NHS services won't improve unless more people start working in social care.
Up to a quarter of hospital beds in the county are taken by patients waiting for outside care support.
The government said it is putting up more money to help hospitals discharge patients this winter
But care workers say their industry has been understaffed and underfunded for years.
"Everybody's saying this is the worst winter they've ever known," said Jo Howes, chief executive of the Wiltshire Care Partnership, which speaks for dozens of the county's care home providers.
Ms Howes, who has worked in health and social care in Wiltshire for 20 years, said the current situation "feels like the most pressured, most stressful, most difficult right across the system.
"And that's saying quite a lot really having done two years of pandemic."
She said several care workers left after the worst of the pandemic was over, and Brexit has made it harder for the sector to find staff.
There is also a stark shortage of care workers who work in people's own homes.
"The difference you can make to people's lives is just unbelievable," said Kate Ball, a senior care worker at Abicare in Bradford on Avon.
She said her profession has felt largely "ignored" in the discussion over the future of the health service - "after Covid, we were just like nothing," she added.
"We can make a difference to the ambulance sat outside the hospital, to the bed blocking," said Mrs Ball, who described carers as an "invisible army".
But she added that right now too many who need their help are left waiting due to a lack of staff.
Like many, Wiltshire's hospitals have been struggling with long ambulance handovers and delays in A and E, caused in part by a lack of beds available in wards.
"The hospital is really full," Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust Chief Executive Stacey Hunter told BBC Radio Wiltshire earlier this month.
"We are caring for at any one time 100-plus people who are medically ready to leave the hospital but need some kind of ongoing care and are not able to access that in a timely way."
Councils are responsible for coordinating social care in their areas.
Wiltshire Council said it recognises the staffing problems are a "significant problem" at the moment and is urging the government to provide "clarity about funding" in future.
The council said it is working hard to help speed up discharges but Wiltshire's cabinet member for Adult Social Care, Conservative Jane Davies, warned: "without a sustainable market we're just not going to be able to give people the care they need and deserve."
Health Secretary Steve Barclay has said the government is funding "the biggest increase in history into social care, an extra £7.5 billion over the next two years."
The government added that the NHS is being given £250m to buy thousands of beds in care homes and upgrade hospitals this winter.
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