Care system’s perpetual crisis

As successive governments have wrung their hands, commissioned studies and then pointedly ignored their findings, an endless parade of elderly people have sold their houses, ploughed their life savings into care plans and all too frequently found that the system has badly let them down as budgets are slashed and hard-pressed carers take short cuts while following a tick-box system that pays no heed to patients’ needs.

The difference this time is that it is actually possible that the Government will finally do something to improve this situation. For a decision is due next month on the proposals of the Dilnot Commission which recommended that those with assets of less than £100,000 will no longer pay for their care and support, while those who do pay will have their costs capped at £35,000.

Yet, even if Ministers do take this long overdue step towards resolving the problems of paying for social care, there will remain much more to be done in terms of improving the quality of care and it is surely time for serious consideration to be given to the idea of establishing a Government department specifically catering for the elderly.

For, while the Government has made much of its commitment to increased health spending, this ignores the fact that local-authority cuts are having a severe impact on care budgets throughout the country, and patients are suffering accordingly.

Yet the very fact that the number of elderly people is increasing so quickly – the total of those aged over 85 has gone up by more than 250,000 since 2004 – should help to concentrate minds.

For, considering the other pertinent fact that those of pensionable age are among those most likely to vote at elections, it is simply going to become politically impossible for any government to ignore such a huge swathe of the population and consign them to a care system that is in perpetual crisis.