Age UK is calling for the future of social care to be put on a sustainable financial footing urgently.
A paucity of social care support is costing the NHS £587 million overall, equivalent to £640,000 every day, or £27,000 every hour. These figures are based on the 917 days between the last general election on 8 June 2017 and the upcoming election on 12 December 2019.
This is due to many people staying in hospital for longer than is clinically necessary. One of the major reasons for people being kept in hospital is because it is unsafe for them to go home as there is no social care support available for them. This is recorded by the hospital as a delayed day.
Staying in hospital is much more expensive than being supported at home or in a care home. It can also erode older people’s confidence and lead to muscle wastage from staying in bed for long periods.
‘We are all paying the price for the inability of our politicians to fix social care’
Caroline Abrahams, charity director of Age UK said: “It is appalling that two and a half million bed days will have been lost to the NHS between the last election and this one, simply because there is not nearly enough social care available to allow older people to be safely discharged.
“The waste of money this represents is staggering, coming in at more than half a billion pounds, but the human cost is arguably even greater, with many older people finding this means their recovery and rehabilitation is seriously delayed or in the worst cases put out of reach altogether.”
She added: “We are all paying the price for the inability of our politicians to fix social care, whether you are waiting endlessly for a much-needed knee operation or facing hours of delay in A and E following an accident at home. When hospitals get jammed up because they can’t discharge older people the effects feed right the way through and mean there are no beds for new patients who need them.”
The average number of people kept in hospital after they were ready to be discharged because of inadequate social care, was 2,750 every day, over the period between the last general election and this upcoming one.
“Fixing this problem is not just the humane thing to do, it is the smart thing to do – it’s clearly ridiculous to not address it when it is more expensive to keep a person with dementia in hospital than for them to get the care they need and deserve.”
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Age UK is calling for the future of social care to be put on a sustainable financial footing urgently.
Victoria Homecare is a family-owned company providing person-centred care in Doncaster, Rotherham, Wakefield, Pontefract, Castleford, Normanton and Knottingley. Regulated by the Care Quality Commission.