Bed blocking alert for NHS over elderly

The NHS faces a “bed-blocking” crisis which could see half of wards being flooded with elderly people who should be in care homes, a report warned.

Figures estimate that if social care budgets are not ring-fenced, 81,000 care home beds will be lost over the next decade, leaving vulnerable people nowhere to go but hospital.

The pressure on the health service will be further compounded by the rapidly ageing population that will see an additional 18,000 older people needing care, the study warns.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

This will leave 100,000 of the 170,000 NHS beds taken up by the elderly residents who should be in residential care, according to the report by Bupa, the health insurance and care provider.

The study, entitled Who Cares? Funding Adult Social Care Over the Next Decade, urges the Government to ring-fence the £2bn earmarked for adult social care so councils do not use it to plug holes in other budgets.

It also calls for councils to take into account care home inflation when setting budgets.

Baroness Greengross, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia and chief executive of ILC-UK, who supports Bupa’s view, added: “Council leaders across the country must make a public pledge to pass on in full the £2bn allocated to them by the Government to fund adult social care and to take account of care home inflation when setting their fees.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

A Department of Health spokesman said: “Most older people want to stay supported in their own homes for as long as possible and the extra money we have given councils will help them care for older people in the environment that’s best for them.”

David Rogers, of the Local Government Association, said ring-fencing was not feasible.

Related topics: