Social care ‘broken’ Rise in needless hospital visits by dementia sufferers

Needless hospital admissions for dementia patients have risen by more than 73 per cent over the last five years because social care is “broken”, the Alzheimer’s Society has warned.

The charity sent Freedom of Information requests to 65 major English hospitals to ask about emergency admissions for dementia patients due to potentially avoidable issues – including dehydration, delirium, falls, urinary tract and chest infections – and found that admissions for over-65s with dementia rose from 31,000 in 2011-12 to 54,000 in 2016-17.

It said that in a similar period, there has been a 40 per cent budget cut to councils, which are responsible for social care. The society said too many people were left “battling a broken care system”.