New research from charity Age UK, ‘The State of Health and Care of Older People in England 2023’, documents how our health and care system is struggling, and too often failing, to meet the needs of our growing older population.
The Charity says this shows that as a nation, we need to switch away from our current over-reliance on acute hospital-based care towards a targeted focus on prevention and early intervention to enable older people to stay fit and well in their homes and care homes.
The new report shows how significant hospital admissions of older people could be avoided if they received help earlier, before small health problems mushroom into crises requiring urgent clinical support. Once admitted, older people have longer hospital stays and are more likely to experience delayed discharge. Over winter 2022/23, between 13,000 and 14,000 patients were stranded in hospitals on any given day, up from around 4,500 in the same period in 2018/19. 1 In 6 patients over the age of 75 is then readmitted within 30 days of being discharged – a terrible vicious circle.
The report stresses the need for joined-up health and care services to identify older people at risk of a health emergency and intervene to help them avoid it. In addition, rather than expanding to meet the needs of growing numbers of older people, the system has yet to move forward regarding the numbers being helped. This, in turn, is placing more burden and responsibility on unpaid carers – usually families – to fill the gap, leaving many older people struggling to cope alone. Inevitably, their health often declines in this situation, sometimes leading to a hospital stay that might have been avoided.
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Between 2015 and 2020, there was a 24% reduction in the number of nursing posts in social care and a 12% reduction in the number of district nursing posts.
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Since 2017/18, 36,000 fewer older people are getting long-term care from their local authority.
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An estimated 1.6 million people aged 65+ have unmet needs for care and support.
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45% of older people were concerned about their ability to access their GP, and 40% did not feel they had enough support to manage their health conditions.
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One in five (20%) unpaid carers are aged 65 plus and many are having to pick up many hours of support.
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85% of older carers are worried about whether they can keep caring or providing support.
Mikey Erhardt, Policy and Campaigns Officer, said:
"Yet another report crystalises what Disabled people already know about our failing social care system: that years of systematic neglect and underfunding have left it unable to provide the care we have a right to.
Care is not a dirty word or something we should baulk at; care is the vehicle for many of us to live a full independent life. We deserve choice and control over the care and support we need. Care and support enable us to learn, work, have fun and make social connections, and we need urgent systemic change."