1,000 OAPs per day hurt in falls

Rise in hospital admissions amid £60m Tory cuts

THE number of older people hospitalised after falling is due to rocket to 1,000 a day by 2020.

It comes amid £60million Tory cuts to fall-prevention services.

Figures obtained by the Local Government Association show there were 316,669 hospital admissions of over-65s due to falling in England in 2016/17.

These admissions have increased by almost 10% over the past four years. Based on this trend, experts fear it will FEARS Cllr Izzi Seccombe continue to rise to as much as 365,000, or 1,000 a day, by 2020/21. Falls cost the NHS more than £2billion a year. Experts say many can be avoided through simple changes in the home, but these require social care funding. The LGA is calling on the

Tories to reverse fall prevention funding cuts to reduce the numbers of OAPs who require medical care.

Cllr Izzi Seccombe, chair of the LGA’s community wellbeing board, said: “Fall prevention schemes, such as home modification programmes, have shown to significantly reduce the number of hospital admissions.

“But some councils are being forced to stop such fall prevention services due to funding reductions.”

Ms Seccombe added: “Spending on prevention work from adult social care budgets [has] reduced by more than £60million in the past year.”

WHAT a tragedy that Britain’s elderly fear they will fall and be let down and out because the powers that be don’t care.

The thousand or more older people who will be admitted to hospital daily because of slips and trips is a scandal when you consider the £60million that has been cut from the budgets to prevent these kind of tumbles.

Prevention needs to be championed before cure, with homes adapted and teams ready to speed to emergency calls.

Those who are young wish to live to a healthy old age, and the old wish to be healthy, which means we all have an equally keen interest in the right thing being done.