Elderly bear the brunt of A&E crisis

This is NHS Check report no 11 originally published by Labour’s Shadow Health Team in June 2013

REVEALED:

• 66% increase in over 90 year olds arriving at A&E – 110,000 extra patients
• Cuts to council Adult Social Care budgets now total £1.8 billion since the election

Huge cuts to council social care budgets are leaving older people and their families without the care they need. Without this daily support, increasing numbers face no alternative but to turn to A&E departments.

Labour would invest £1.2 billion of the NHS underspend – which Jeremy Hunt handed back to the Treasury – over the next two years to ease the crisis in social care and tackle this root cause of the pressure on A&E.

Rise in elderly patients arriving at A&E

Official NHS Hospital Episode Statistics reveal a hugely disproportionate increase in the numbers of elderly people arriving at A&E in ambulances in the first two years of this Government.

The most recent data, for the year 2011-12, shows a 66% increase in over 90 year olds arriving at A&E compared to Labour’s last year – an extra 110,000 patients. A&Es saw a 19% rise in attendances from over 80 years olds too – 121,000 patients.

Cuts to council care budgets

Figures from the House of Commons Library reveal year on year real terms cuts to local authority Adult Social Care budgets across England, now totalling £1.8 billion since the election.