Older people in need left to fend for themselves

Older people in need are being left to fend for themselves

Older people who are struggling with everyday tasks, such as washing and dressing, are being left to fend for themselves, campaigners say.

The health and care system for older people in England is under severe stress and is under performing, leading to higher costs, poorer health outcomes and worse patient and service user experience, says a damning report by Age UK.

The disturbing findings suggest 'a destructive vicious circle' as inadequate access to high quality social care is progressively sapping the resilience both of NHS services and of older people who are at risk of poor health.

The numbers of older people in England are steadily growing, and those with long term conditions growing faster still, but overall, investment in health care is failing to keep pace and funding for social care has very significantly declined.

Between 2005 and 2016 the number of people aged 65 or over in England increased by 18.8 per cent (or by 1.5million people) with the biggest growth amongst the over 85s (up by 29.3 per cent). Community based services on which many older people depend in order to sustain their independence have seen the sharpest falls and elsewhere supply is often failing to meet rising demand.

Key findings and facts from the report:

• Between 2005/6 and 2014/15 the numbers aged 65+ in England increased by almost a fifth and the numbers aged 85+ rose by approaching a third. The increase in the older population is projected to accelerate over the next 20 years.
• Disability free life expectancy is rising more slowly than life expectancy. Most people aged 75 and over have one or more health conditions, though 50 per cent of them do not consider it ‘life limiting’, one in four of those aged 85 and over are frail.
• Most long term conditions are more prevalent among older age groups; for example, 0.3% people aged 60-64 and 4% 75-79 year olds have dementia but this rises to more than one in four 95-99 year old women and one in five men.
• £1.85 billion has come out of social care over the last 10 years; Government budget allocations for 2015/16 imply social care budgets will fall by a further £470 million, even after accounting for the transfer from the NHS to the Better Care Fund.
• Government spending on home care for older people fell by a fifth between 2010/11 and 2013/14, with 15% fewer older people getting support. State spending on meals on wheels has halved in the last three years and approaching two thirds fewer older people now receive them.
• More than a million older people in England now have at least one unmet social care need, up from 800,000 in 2010; this means they receive no help from their local authority or from family, neighbours or friends. The risk of having an unmet care need is greatest for the oldest and those who live alone. Around half of those older people with difficulty bathing or getting dressed without help, and around a third with difficulty going to the toilet unaided, receive no support.
• In 2014 about one in six of the population were caring for an older person, a third of them for more than 20 hours a week; one in five people aged over 65 was caring for another older person, a quarter of them for more than 50 hours a week.
• The Kings Fund says NHS spending must rise 3-6% a year to keep up with growing demand and the cost of new technology; in fact, in real terms since 2010/11 NHS funding has risen by an average 0.8% a year. NHS England says the NHS funding gap will reach £30 billion by 2021. The Government has said it will increase NHS funding by up to about £10 billion, leaving a £20 billion gap, to be bridged it is hoped through increased productivity and efficiencies – which is ambitious.
• Between 2005/6 and 2012/13 emergency hospital admissions of people aged 65 or older rose by a fifth, a steeper increase than is explained by demographic change.
• Between 2011/12 and 2014/15 the annual numbers of delayed discharges for acute patients in hospitals increased by 40 per cent; between 2013/14 and 2014/15 delays due to social care increased by 15.5 per cent.