The charity, Age UK, has called on the Government to inject urgent money into the care system in the Spring Budget. They’ve warned that the care system for older people is living on ‘borrowed time’.
In a report labelled, ‘The Health and Care of Older People in England 2017’ the charity has revealed that one in eight over 65s are now living with unmet care needs. This equates to 1.2m people in the UK. Additionally, the report states people are waiting longer to be discharged from hospital, putting more pressure on hospital resources and capacity and therefore leading to increased spending. Due to closures of care homes and less care homes offering local authority funded places, older people are having to wait longer for a care home place.
In addition to this, there has been an increase in the number of people with complex unmet care needs, which is adding to the pressure on the social care system as a whole. There are also now over two million carers aged 65 and over, but nearly two thirds of these carers have a health condition or disability themselves.
It would appear that without the injection of this much needed funding, the objectives of the Care Act will no longer be met. The government need to make the public aware of this and be honest about the realities of the situation.
