HOSPITAL BED BLOCK SHOCK
Social care chaos sparks new surge in elderly patients stuck on wards
BED blocking is soaring again as the Tories fail to sort out social care.
Over 42,000 hospital bed days were lost in one month as patients had nowhere to go.
Labour said: “It’s a concern as winter approaches.”
THE number of hospital beds blocked as vulnerable patients wait for squeezed home care has soared again, figures show.
A total of 42,684 bed days were lost for this reason in July, latest NHS England figures show.
That was up 2,500 on June after a fall from 68,000 in July 2017, NHS England revealed as the Mirror campaigns on Fair Care For All.
Emergency funding had helped ease the logjam on wards that contributed to last winter being the worst in NHS history.
But now there are fears the cash has dried up, amid warnings the Tories’ lack of a long-term social care plan will lead to another crisis.
The home care delays accounted for well over a third of the 140,000 bed days lost to delayed transfers of care – a rise of 6,000 from June.
That means it is edging back up towards January’s total of 151,000, after local councils bowed to pressure and threw their limited resources at the problem.
Shadow Social Care Minister Barbara Keeley said: “This should come as a concern as winter approaches, when pressure on social care services will grow.
“Councils who deliver care are struggling under 40% cuts to their budgets by this Tory Government.” Many of the 140,000 days lost in July were due to short staffing, with patients having to wait for an available medic to deliver “non-acute care” before they can be discharged.
Some 11,000 were a combination of social and medical care shortfalls.
The Local Government Association urged the Tories to produce their long-awaited Green Paper for reform. A spokesman said: “With people living longer, increases in costs and decreases in funding, adult social care is at breaking point. It needs to be put on an equal footing with the health service.”
By 2021 there will be a 30,000 shortfall in care home places, said Sally Copley of the Alzheimer’s Society, adding: “Already there’s not enough care to go around.”
The cost to the NHS of one extra bed day in hospital is estimated at £312 – compared with an average £91 a day for a residential care home.
The total cost of bed blocking has been put at £3billion a year.
The Department of Health and Social Care said: “Delays attributable to adult social care have reduced by 43% since February last year.”
It said it will set out its social care reform plans in the coming months.