Nearly 2.5m NHS Bed Days Lost In Five Years

Bed blocking has seen NHS hospitals lose nearly 2.5 million days of care in the last five years as older people wait to be moved to social care, a charity has said.

Age UK found 2,431,120 bed days were lost to the NHS between June 2010 and March 2015, including 215,662 days that people were waiting for a nursing home place to become available.

The figure also includes 206,053 days they spent needing help from social care workers or district nurses before they could return to live in their own home.

The charity calculated that the average number of patients kept in hospital unnecessarily because social care was unavailable increased by 19.3% between 2013/14 and 2014/15, with 44% more people waiting for health and care packages at home compared with the previous year, and 32.8% more patients waiting for a place in a nursing home.

The trend is costing taxpayers a fortune, Age UK said, with £669m spent in the last five years to keep people in hospital while they wait for social care.

The charity said that an NHS bed costs on average £1,925 a week, compared with about £558 for a week in residential care or £356 for home care based on three hours of care per day over the course of one week.

It said these waits for care and support outside hospital are happening against the backdrop of £2.4bn cuts from social care budgets for older people since 2010, mostly as a result of reduced funding for local government - meaning local authorities are finding it increasingly difficult to provide the social care people need.

Last year a Sky News investigation found doctors were unable to discharge 1,000 patients every day who no longer need treatment because no care was available in the community.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: "These figures show that year on year, older people are being trapped in hospital in ever greater numbers because of a delayed assessment, care home place, home care package or home adaptation.

"Not only would a properly resourced social care system transform many older people's lives and make sound financial sense, more people of all ages could also get speedier treatment in hospital when they need it.

Elliot Dunster, head of policy, research and public affairs at disability charity Scope, said: "Chronic underfunding of adult social care has seen dramatic year-on-year rationing of support, leaving many disabled people without the care they need to get up, get dressed and get out of the house.

"People become isolated, can't live on their own and slip into crisis. The health service is often forced to pick up the pieces.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "In fact, over the last five years the proportion of older people delayed in hospital because of social care has been improving - and we're going further with the £5.3bn Better Care programme, which is joining up health and social care services for the first time.

"Next year, there will be 84,400 fewer days spent unnecessarily in hospital as a result, and our plan to create a seven-day NHS will take this even further."