Beleagured A&E departments are being swamped by elderly people rushed to hospital from care homes.
Hospitals across England now have more than 14,600 emergency admissions from pensioners who live in care homes every day and the numbers are rising every year.
Critics claim cuts to social care budgets, a lack of access to GPs and fewer district nurses have combined with an ageing population to pile pressure on A&E departments.
They have warned the crisis is being exacerbated by bed blocking in which elderly people are not able to leave hospital because social care packages are not in place.
The revelations come after The Sunday Post revealed 23,000 beds had been scrapped from NHS wards in England over the past four years.
Shadow health minister Jamie Reed said: “David Cameron has cut social care funding meaning more and more people who could and should be treated at home are left with no option but to go to A&E.
“Through decimating local government resources, the number of people trapped in hospital due to a lack of community services is ever-increasing. By cutting social care funding, Cameron has heaped pressure on A&E departments.”
Figures released in the House of Lords have revealed that during 2009/10 there were almost 5.2 million emergency hospital admissions from people in care homes. But by 2012/13 it had increased to 5.33 million at a rate of 609 an hour.
The revelations come after a warning by the Royal College of Nursing that district nurses will be “extinct” by 2025, with numbers having plunged by 47% over the last decade.
It followed a report by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, which revealed half of all hospital beds were taken by over-65s and one in five people aged 85 or over had to use A&E last year.
Katherine Murphy, of the Patients Association, said: “With an increasingly ageing population there will inevitably be more patients with multiple health and social care needs who may require hospital admission.
“However, for a significant number of care home residents, admission to hospital via A&E is not appropriate, indeed it may even be detrimental.
“If patients have easy and prompt access to GPs, district nurses and good quality social care, many can be treated and managed far better in the community than they can in hospital. Not only is this beneficial to the patient, but it also eases the huge pressures that are being placed upon our emergency departments.
“Unless we see proper investment in our social care system, vulnerable older people and those with multiple health and social care needs will continue to suffer.”
A Department of Health spokesman said: “We know the NHS needs to respond to the changing needs of an ageing population. That’s why we’re bringing back the link between GPs and their elderly patients and have agreed a £3.8bn Better Care Fund to help people live independently, get them out of hospital more quickly and prevent them from getting ill in the first place.
“We are also supporting councils to protect services by giving them £1.1bn additional funding from the NHS this year.”
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