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NEWS RELEASE FROM THE
REGISTERED NURSING HOME ASSOCIATION
Issued 11th December 2001
BIG FALL IN NURSING HOME BEDS ACROSS THE SOUTH AND WEST:
GOVERNMENT POLICIES TAKING COUNTRY IN WRONG DIRECTION
ON LONG-TERM CARE
The South and West of England have seen a big fall in nursing home beds over the past three years, according to the latest statistics.
The Registered Nursing Home Association (RNHA) described as 'extremely worrying' Department of Health figures which show that, between 1998 and 2001, the number of general nursing home beds in the region fell by 10 per cent - from 26,452 to 23,807. During the same period, the number of nursing homes fell from 877 to 750.
Across England as a whole, over the past three years the number of nursing home beds has fallen by nearly 22,000 - a 13 per cent drop. This figure is about the same as the number of hospital patients who, at any moment in time, have had their discharges delayed because there is no place available where they can be properly looked after in the community.
The statistics have confirmed the RNHA's fears that the loss of capacity in the nursing home sector is so great that the country will struggle to provide the increase in care needed over the next thirty years to keep pace with the rising numbers of older people living well into their 80s.
Some demographic projections suggest that nursing home beds would need to expand by around 65 per cent by 2031. The continuing fall in numbers means that an even greater expansion will be needed to meet the target, possibly as much as 100 per cent.
Commented RNHA chief executive officer Frank Ursell: "Government policies are taking the country in precisely the opposite direction from the one it needs to be going in if the health care needs of older people are to be met thirty years from now. The government can rightly be accused of fiddling while a vitally important part of the health care sector declines before its very eyes. Inaction by the government, coupled with chronic underfunding of care for older people, could mean that there will be insufficient long-term care beds available in the years ahead."
He added: "The government appears to want to spend a lot more money sending NHS patients to private hospitals for operations. But for some reason it seems oblivious and uncaring as far as the long-term care of this country's older people is concerned. It's time for older people and those who care for them to make their voices heard. If we don't, this country will stand accused in years to come of criminal neglect of one of society's most vulnerable groups."
The RNHA is calling on the government to halt the continuing decline in nursing home beds by increasing funding support for social services departments.
The RNHA stresses, however, that the government's recent 'cash for change' initiative, which provided additional money to social services departments in a bid to reduce delayed discharges of patients from hospital, has not succeeded in stemming the tide of nursing home closures.
"The situation is extremely serious," said Mr Ursell. "The continued decline in nursing home beds will negate the impact of the government's latest initiative and result in more, rather than fewer, delayed discharges from hospital in many parts of the country.
"Government policies are generating a vicious circle of increasing numbers of nursing home closures, which lead to further delays in discharging older people from acute hospital wards, which lead to longer waiting times for patients waiting to come into hospital. Drastic action is needed now, not in ten or twenty years' time, to tackle the problem if a vital piece of this country's health care infrastructure is not to be irreparably damaged."
END
For further information and comment, please contact:
Frank Ursell, Chief Executive Officer, Registered Nursing Home Association
Tel: 0121-454 2511 or mobile 07785 227000
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