COMMENT CSJ THE CLINICAL SERVICES JOURNAL Editor


Louise Frampton louiseframpton@stepcomms.com


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THE CLINICAL SERVICES JOURNAL is published in January, February, March, April, May, June, August, September, October and November by Step Communications Ltd, Step House, North Farm Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN2 3DR, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1892 779999 Fax: +44 (0)1892 616177 Email: csj@stepcomms.com Web: www.clinicalservicesjournal.com


The impact of cuts to social care funding


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© Step Communications Ltd, 2016 Single copy: £19.00 per issue. Annual journal subscription: UK £114.00 Overseas: £150.00


ISSN NO. 1478-5641


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The care and support older people receive increasingly depends on where they live and how much money they have rather than their needs, according to a new report by The King’s Fund and the Nuffield Trust. Six years of cuts to local authority budgets, rising demand for services and shortages of staff have left the social care system unable to meet the needs of the older people who depend on it. The report finds that this is placing an unacceptable burden on unpaid carers and is leaving rising numbers of older people who have difficulty with the basic activities of daily living – such as washing, dressing and getting out of bed – without any support at all. Ruth Thorlby, deputy director of policy at the Nuffield Trust said: “Our research found that local authorities have done their best to make savings while protecting funding for the poorest, but care providers are struggling on the low fees councils can afford. Shortages of home care staff and affordable care home places mean older people are often stuck in hospital, putting both their lives and vital NHS processes on hold. The number of older people needing care is increasing and yet we are continuing to put less money in.” Her comments echo the findings of an earlier report by the National Audit Office (NAO) which highlighted the impact that cuts to social care are having on the NHS. The NAO estimated that the gross annual cost to the NHS of treating older patients in hospital who no longer need to receive acute clinical care is in the region of £820 million. Based on evidence gathered by the NAO, the true figure for patients aged 65 and older who are no longer benefiting from acute care could be as high as 2.7 million days. Longer stays in hospital are not just costly to the NHS but also have a negative impact on older patients’ health as they quickly lose mobility and the ability to do everyday tasks – the NAO points out that older people lose around 5% of muscle strength per day of treatment in a hospital bed.


Delayed discharge is just one side of the


coin, however – last year the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman saw a 36%


Louise Frampton l Editor louiseframpton@stepcomms.com


OCTOBER 2016


increase in discharge related investigations. These found that people’s deaths or suffering could have been prevented if hospitals carried out the right checks before discharging people. The Ombudsman published a report in May which told the tragic experience a grandmother in her late 90s, who collapsed and died at home in her granddaughter’s arms after being discharged from hospital too soon.


Another hospital sent an 85-year-old woman with dementia home alone at 11pm, without informing her family, despite the fact she was unable to look after herself. Her daughter visited her the next morning to find that her mother had been left with no food, drink and bedding, unable to care for herself or get to the toilet. In another case, an elderly


Our research found that local authorities have done their best to make savings while protecting funding for the poorest, but care providers are struggling on the low fees councils can afford.


man with vascular dementia and a personality disorder was discharged but ended up being locked on a psychiatric ward for one year because his local authority refused to fund a dementia care home for him. Faced with under-funding and poor


co-ordination, health and social care services are failing our older citizens – compromising their safety, dignity and independence. As the legendary American writer and humanitarian, Pearl S. Buck, once wrote: "Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members."


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