A GP is to lead an independent commission set up by the Labour Party to look at how health and social care can be better integrated.
Sir John Oldham, a GP from Derbyshire has been asked to come up with ideas for how health and social care can be integrated to make the NHS more effective and affordable.
Nuffield Trust research said that without better integration the NHS might have a shortfall of up to £29bn a year 2020.
Speaking to the BBC, Labour's shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: 'Older people are trapped in hospitals because they can't get [treatment] in the community. Our ageing society demands this integration. There isn't social care on wards to look after frail people. We want to extend the NHS into social care.
'Under these plans, which Labour is debating, the NHS would take the provision of social care from local authorities; but councils would lead on commissioning to balance this and they would hold the budgets.
'This would be better for the tax payer and a much better use of resources.'