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Bed blocking fines to slap English social services with £49 million per year bill
November 20, 2002 12:00 AM
Paul Burstow MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesman on Older People, today released research showing that the bed blocking fines system in Labour's Community Care (Delayed Discharges etc) Bill will cost local councils in England a total of nearly £49million per year. On average, council tax in England would rise by £2.30 per household.
Subject to legislation, the fines will be introduced from April 2003. For every day an older person is in hospital and waiting to be discharged, the Government consultation proposed a fine for local authority social services departments of £120 per day in London and the South East and £100 per day in the rest of the England.
The worst affected regions will include:-
• The South East where fines will cost local councils £14.8million a year, and each household £4.37
• London where fines will cost councils £9.4million a year and each household £2.98
• The South West where fines will cost councils £6.2million a year and each household £2.91
Paul Burstow MP said:
"Fining already underfunded social services is not addressing the cause of the problem. Current inadequate budgets mean that social services can't afford to provide proper care for vulnerable older people.
"Fines for what is really a Government failure is typical of Ministers looking to shift the blame. Fining already overstretched social services departments will force councils either to cut services or increase council taxes. Services for children and mental health users are usually the first to be cut by local authorities desperate to avoid fines.
"Attempts to reduce delayed discharge are leading to an increase in emergency readmissions. Elderly people are forced out of hospital before they are well enough to go home, only to return within days as emergency cases.
"Until Ministers wake up to the scale of the crisis in both the home care and care home sectors, many elderly people will be victims of a `pass the parcel' between the NHS and social services."
ENDS
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