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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent

Ministers seek volunteer social care army to speed up hospital discharges

Woman rings doorbell
Volunteers will deliver drugs and equipment to people’s homes or could do shopping or other errands. Photograph: Catchlight Visual Services/Alamy

Health ministers are to recruit a new volunteer army for social care to ferry medical equipment and drugs to people’s homes in a bid to free up congested hospital wards.

Volunteers will also be sent to, though not into, people’s homes to tackle loneliness and carry out shopping and other errands.

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