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NEWS RELEASE FROM THE
REGISTERED NURSING HOME ASSOCIATION
Issued 18th December 2001
BED BLOCKING MORE THAN WIPES OUT
CLAIMED INCREASE IN HOSPITAL BEDS:
ELDERLY CARE INFRASTRUCTURE BEING ERODED
POTENTIALLY BEYOND REPAIR, CLAIM NURSING HOMES
Bed blocking and delayed discharges of older patients have more than cancelled out any increase in hospital beds currently being trumpeted by the Department of Health.
The Registered Nursing Home Association, which represents nursing homes throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, says boasts by health ministers that acute and general hospital beds have risen by 1,225 since this time last year must be offset against the blocking of some 6,000 beds, according to the government's own figures.
Bed blocking is still rife, says the RNHA, because there is still a woeful lack of money available to meet the needs of older people for nursing home and residential care.
Commented the association's chief executive officer, Frank Ursell: "Over two thirds of all patients in acute and general hospital beds are over the age of 65. Many need to go into a nursing home or residential care home immediately after their treatment but are being denied a place because the government and local authorities are starving the elderly care budget."
He added: "Increasing the number of hospital beds is fruitless if the system is clogging up at the discharge end. Too many older people are being kept needlessly in acute hospitals long after they should have been able to move on. This exposes them to the risk of serious infections, such as MRSA. It also impedes their ability to recover, both physically and psychologically, from the acute illness that led to their admission in the first place."
A recent Department of Health news release (More Nurses, More NHS Beds, issued 12th December 2001) claimed that three quarters of NHS Plan nursing targets were being met three years early. It could be argued, says the RNHA, that over three quarters of the projected 7,000 increase in hospital beds by the year 2004 has been wiped out by continued bed blocking on an unacceptable scale.
The RNHA has also warned of the potential impact on elderly care of 22,000 nursing home beds closed over the past three years. The country is hurtling towards an irreparable breakdown of its care infrastructure for older people, the RNHA says, as a direct result of under-investment nationally and locally.
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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