Delays getting home care rocket by 209 per cent in six years

Since 2011, almost four million hospital bed days have been lost to the NHS due to problems securing social care, Age UK has revealed.

In 2016/17 alone, 954,799 hospital bed days were lost due to an inability to access social care, with an excess cost of £173 million excluding equipment and adaptations.

Over the period there has been a trend towards more older people staying in the community through home care rather than going into care homes and nursing homes, but the number of bed days lost have continued to soar by 209 per cent.

Age UK reveals that the starkest increase was last year, when there was a 27.2 per cent rise in the number of bed days lost through an inability to have social care arrangements in place.

Age UK is arguing that these figures represent a huge amount of older people unable to start their recovery out of hospital, putting them at risk of infections, loss of mobility and psychological distress.

It also argues that it is a ‘terrible waste’ of NHS resources and shows shortsightedness from successive governments in not addressing the social care crisis. An excess bed day in the NHS costs between £2,089 and £2,532 a week for non-elective and elective inpatients, compared to about £519 for a place in residential care and less still for home care.

The charity is therefore calling on the government to act on its pledge to bring forward proposals for putting social care back on track to meet 21st century expectations and the demands of an ageing population.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director of Age UK, said: “These delayed discharge figures show the disastrous impact of our failing social care system on the NHS, as well as on older people themselves. Increasing numbers are being marooned in their hospital beds, losing muscle tone and risking infection when they are medically fit enough to leave, often because of acute shortages of social care, especially of the home visiting kind. There is no doubt that some older people’s chances of a good recovery are being totally undermined as a result.

“To add insult to injury, this ridiculous and sometimes tragic situation cost the tax payer over £173 million last year alone, money that would have been much better spent giving older people the social care they need.

“This is why the government must stand by its pledge to bring forward proposals soon for putting social care on a sustainable footing. In the medium and longer term we need new mechanisms so people can pool their risk of developing care needs, but with winter approaching the immediate imperative is an injection of resources into social care and fresh efforts to tackle the galloping delayed discharge crisis that is threatening to engulf our hospitals.”

David Oliver, clinical vice president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: “The national audit office report on delayed transfers of care from hospital showed that the officially reported figures grossly underestimate the real numbers of stranded patients in hospital awaiting community services through no fault of their own. It also showed that delayed transfers of care bed days had increased by 32 per cent in just two years.

“Some of these delays are due to systematic cuts to social care budgets and provision. Others are due to a serious lack of capacity in community healthcare services - especially intermediate care step down rehabilitation.

“These delays have serious impacts on our already scare hospital bed base; leave patients marooned in acute ward settings they no longer need and at risk of harms of hospitalisation. And so far attempts to solve the problem through initiatives like the Better Care Fund or pressure from NHS England have failed.”