A new report from Age UK has found that social care is in
desperate need of a long term plan for social care funding, and
in the meantime that Wednesday’s Spending Review must direct very
substantial additional investment into care services in 2020/2021
to avert the risk of complete collapse in the worst affected
districts.
The report, ‘The Health and Care of Older
People in England 2019’, draws on many official statistics as
well as new Age UK analysis to provide a comprehensive picture of
how services are functioning today for older people across the
NHS and social care.
, Director of Policy and
Campaigns at Alzheimer’s Society, said:
“Yet another strong report clearly evidences that the
social care system is heading for collapse. The social care
crisis is a dementia crisis, with three-fifths of people
receiving homecare and 70% of people in care homes having
dementia. Millions of pounds are being drained from the NHS
because of avoidable hospital admissions and people being stuck
in hospital even when they’re well enough to leave, because they
don’t have access to the care and support they need in the
community.
“We must have a dedicated £2.4bn NHS Dementia Fund in
Wednesday’s Spending Review to address the most pressing issues
for people with dementia while longer term solutions are agreed
and implemented. Decisive action from the Prime Minister is
needed with more funding for dementia care, or we risk the
complete collapse of services and people with dementia let down
by the catastrophic state of care."