Age UK reveals 'destructive vicious circle' in health and social care for older people

The health and social care system for older people in England is under severe stress and underperforming, leading to higher costs, poorer health outcomes and worse service user experiences, warns Age UK.

The report titled: ‘The health and care of older people 2015’ has revealed that inadequate access to high-quality social care is progressively weakening the resilience of both NHS services and of older people who are at risk of poor health.

Commenting on the state of care, charity director at Age UK, Caroline Abrahams, said: “The number of older people in England is steadily growing, and the proportion with long-term conditions is growing faster still, but investment in health care is failing to keep pace and spending on social care has fallen quite spectacularly over the last five years.

“On the whole, it is the community based services which help older people to sustain their independence which have seen the sharpest falls, or where supply is most obviously failing to meet rising demand.”

Ms Abrahams continued: “Our health and social care system is designed so that social care and the NHS interact and support each other to help keep older people fit and well, but starving social care of resources is seriously undermining the NHS – our hospitals especially.

“Hospitals and other services are forced to ‘run hot’ due to the extra pressure, increasing stress on the staff and making it ever harder to recruit and retain them. This is a destructive vicious circle and we are really worried that it seems to be getting worse.”

With an ageing population, the UK is faced with a steady increase of people developing long-term health conditions. Between 2005 and 2015 the number of people aged 65 or over in England increased by 1.5million, with the biggest growth amongst the over 85s (an increase of 29.3 per cent).

The report highlights that investment in healthcare is failing to keep pace as funding for social care has significantly declined. This has influenced a rise in the number of people living with unmet care needs which has increased from 800,000 in 2010, to over one million in 2015.

Almost £2 billion has been cut from older people’s social care in the last ten years and Government budget allocations for 2015/16 suggest that social care budgets will reduce by a further £472 million, even after accounting for the transfer from the NHS for the Better Care Fund.

Ms Abrahams added: “There is a lot of ingenuity and commitment within our health and care system but even so, it is hard to see it being a match for the consequences of a steadily rising older population, combined with health spending failing to keep pace and social care spending significantly declining.

“If an older person asked us today how confident we were that their health and care needs will be met well in the future we would be whistling in the dark if we gave a wholly reassuring answer.

“The Government has the power to change this through its forthcoming Spending Review and we sincerely hope they will.”

To view the Age UK report, visit: http://www.ageuk.org.uk/professional-resources-home/research/reports/health-care-services/the-health-and-care-of-older-people-in-england-2015/.