Care crisis sees dementia patients rushed to hospital

EMERGENCY hospital admissions for dementia sufferers are soaring because of social care failures, a hard-hitting report warns.

And there is worse to come as pandemic pressures and spending cuts hit the system.

This is despite 40 per cent of people ranking social care as one of the most crucial public service priorities for the Government – second only to the NHS (73 per cent).

Even before Covid, tens of thousands of dementia sufferers were rushed to hospital annually with preventable infections, falls and dehydration, an investigation by the Alzheimer’s Society found.

Data – from Freedom of Information requests to 45 English NHS trusts – show admissions rose 27 per cent, from 60,023 to 76,369, between 2015 and 2019.

In 2019, two thirds (65 per cent) of emergency admissions of dementia sufferers were for avoidable illnesses and injuries caused by care failings. Alzheimer’s Society CEO

Kate Lee said: “Without urgent action, avoidable hospital admissions will skyrocket, costing the NHS millions.

“Lockdown has left people with dementia cut off from vital support and care. Decades of chronic underfunding and neglect have led to a system that’s inadequate and deeply unfair – the pandemic has exposed these failings like never before.

“The legacy of this terrible year must be a reformed social care

system, which is free at the point of use and put on an equal footing with the NHS.”

Almost half (48 per cent) of unpaid dementia carers perform tasks they are unqualified for, due to a lack of expert care, according to a separate survey of 1,787 carers.

As a result, 72 per cent of those they look after had a medical problem at home. Three in 10 experienced avoidable falls (29 per cent), one in six missed medication, 22

per cent hurt themselves in the house and one in nine were rushed to hospital in an avoidable emergency.

Almost all (95 per cent) of family carers said a lack of support was damaging their physical or mental health.

As many as 850,000 people in the UK have a form of dementia, with 225,000 developing it every year.The total cost of dementia care is now £34.7billion – more than

£40,000 per person. Much of the rise is claimed to be due to cuts in spending on adult social care piling pressure on A&E and ambulance services.

The Alzheimer’s Society published its probe today to mark the start of Dementia Action Week. It says drastic action is needed to prevent soaring hospital admissions.

But in last week’s Queen’s Speech there were no announcements of new plans or funding for social care.