Report: Burstow

A shortage of specialist beds is leaving thousands of elderly people blocking NHS wards, the Liberal Democrats have claimed.

Figures compiled by Paul Burstow, the party's shadow minister for older people, found that over the last two years the number of over 75s fit to leave hospital, but unable to be discharged, has risen by 13 per cent.

In "No Room at the Inn", his report based on answers to parliamentary questions, he also found that up to April 2001 over 110,000 people aged over 75 had to be readmitted to hospital as emergency cases within a month of discharge - an increase of eight per cent on the previous year.

The result was expensive NHS beds were being blocked by people waiting to leave but unable to do so and as wards were filled up hospitals were forced to cancel operations, increasing waiting lists.

Burstow claimed the cause of gridlock is the loss of 50,000 long-term care beds in the NHS and private care sectors over the past five years, and a shortage of care home staff. He concluded budgetary pressures were leading a growing number of councils to refuse to place an elderly person in a care home until an existing resident has died.

Worst-hit was the south west where the rise in elderly patients waiting for beds had hit 50 per cent. Nationally 15,000 care beds in residential homes had been lost since 1999. Ultimately, Burstow claimed blame was squarely with the government which had allowed the care of the elderly to fall down the agenda.

"The government has presided over a collapse of confidence in the care home sector. In the last two years alone 28,000 beds have been lost. Care home staff can earn more stacking shelves at Tesco," Burstow said.

"The NHS is mired in a permanent winter crisis with care services in a state of gridlock. Older people are victims of an endless round of pass-the-parcel between health and social services. Social services will only pay for a care home bed once someone else has died. It's a macabre game of one in, one out," he said.

Gordon Lishman, director-general of Age Concern England, said: "Older people do not deserve to be pushed from pillar to post while the health service and social services pass responsibility from one to another. At a time when they are ill or convalescing, there needs to be a system that can help older people efficiently and effectively."

The Department of Health rejected the report saying the figures were misleading. "There is a seasonal variation each year in the numbers of discharges delayed and it is more realistic to look at rates of discharge," said a spokesman.

"The NHS is treating more people aged over 75 and the rates of delayed discharge are actually falling. We are spending an extra £900 million on intermediate care to ensure that acute hospital beds are not blocked by older people who could be cared for at home or elsewhere."