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Emergency re-admissions of older people to hospital rise 19% in two years
January 21, 2003 12:00 AM
Ahead of the Lords stages of the Delayed Discharge Bill that will see local councils fined because of bed blocking, Paul Burstow MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesman on Older People, today released shocking new figures that show there has been an increase of 19% in emergency readmissions to hospital within 28 days of being discharged over the last 2 years.
Ministers originally planned to fine social services for bed blocking And NHS Trusts for people over 75 being readmitted to hospital as an emergency within 28 days of being released. However, the Government has subsequently backtracked on these proposals instead choosing to fine solely social services departments.
Paul Burstow MP, said:
"The Government's obsession with delayed discharge targets has failed to address the fundamental issues surrounding the treatment of the frail and vulnerable elderly.
"The crisis in the care of the elderly is widening, deepening and fast approaching meltdown. Older people who have become ill must have the care they need in the right time and the right place. Without a comprehensive review of the social care sector, increasing numbers of older people will either be stuck in a hospital bed for months or given inappropriate care for their needs.
"The victims of emergency readmissions are the frail elderly who find themselves caught up in a morbid game of pass-the-parcel between health and social care.
"Failure to invest in preventative home care and high quality care homes denies people choice and is a false economy. Taxpayers' money is wasted on keeping people in hospital or readmitting the elderly to NHS beds, when what they need is good care at home, or a good care home"
ENDS
Notes to Editors follow…
Notes to Editors
What are emergency readmissions?
If an older person has been discharged from hospital whether they had been admitted as an emergency or as an outpatient and they arrive back through the A&E doors within 28 days of their release, then this is classed as an 'emergency readmission'. There appears to be growing evidence that there is a direct correlation between the number of emergency readmission and the number of delayed discharges
1.) Figures have been analysed by Mr Burstow from Parliamentary answers taken over the last 2 years. Hansard links are available on request
Emergency readmissions of patients over 75 within 28 days of being discharged for July-Sept 2000 to July Sept 2002
Region Jul-Sept 2000 Jul-Sept 2001 Jul-Sept 2002 Percentage Increase from 1999 - 2001 Total increase/ of people
England 28820 30083 34394 19.3% 5574
3.) Paragraph 8.10 of the Department of Health document "Delivering the NHS Plan" published in April 2002 stated:-
"We have been impressed by the success of the system in countries like Sweden and Denmark in getting delayed discharges from hospitals down. We intend to legislate therefore to introduce a similar system of cross-charging. The new social services cash announced in the Budget includes resources to cover the cost of beds needlessly blocked in hospitals through delayed discharges. This was also a reform commended by the Wanless Review. Councils will need to use these extra resources
to expand care at home and to ensure that all older people are able to leave hospital once their treatment is completed and it is safe for them to do so. If councils reduce the number of blocked beds, they will have freedom to use these resources to invest in alternative social care services. If they cannot meet the agreed time limit they will be charged by the local hospital for the costs it incurs in keeping older people in hospital unnecessarily. In this way there will be far stronger incentives in the system to ensure that patients do not have to experience long delays in their discharge from hospital. There will be matching incentive charges on NHS hospitals to make them responsible for the costs of emergency hospital readmissions, so as to ensure patients
are not discharged prematurely."
This proposal has now been dropped.
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