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28,000 readmitted elderly patients die within 6 months
September 25, 2003 12:01 AM
The Government has failed the elderly and their families, Paul Burstow MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Spokesperson on Older People, will say today.
In his speech on Thursday on the Promoting Independence, Protecting Individuals motion, Paul Burstow MP will say:
"The Government has failed the elderly and their families.
"Day after day, more and more care homes close their doors. Since 1996, 74,000 care home places have been lost. This haemorrhaging is unacceptable.
"The number of new registrations of care homes is falling even faster than the number of closures is rising. In the last 15 months just 96 new homes opened in the whole of England.
"A shortage of care home places means less choice for older people. The only choice families have is either sending granny or granddad miles away or topping up what the council is willing to pay to get into a hopefully better home."
Speaking about the continuing crisis in emergency readmissions which has seen readmissions skyrocket by 23% in one year, Paul Burstow MP said:
"Over 140,000 people over 75 are readmitted into hospital each year because they were ejected from hospital too quickly without support. One in five readmitted patients die within 6 months. That is 28,000 people over 75.
"The loss of care home beds, the shortage of homecare placements and the Government's obsession with bed blocking will see that death toll rise.
"The Government has had six years to make good its promises. The message is clear it has failed to deliver fairness and security in old age."
ENDS (Notes to editors…)
Notes to editors
1. "One fifth of readmitted older patients die within six months" - taken from Nursing Older People March Vol 14 No. 1, Readmissions of Older People to Acute Medical Units
2. The number of people who are discharged and then end up back in hospital less than a month later has spiralled from 28,611 between January and April 2000 to 38,666 in January and April 2003.
3. According to the NHS Executive, the definition of emergency readmission is:-
"The emergency admission rate is an important measure of the effectiveness of community care arrangements for elderly people. At the point where it occurs, no emergency admission is avoidable. However, some emergency admissions result from a breakdown of a particular element of primary or community or social care , or from a breakdown in the co-ordination between the agencies involved. There is much that can be done to prevent the patient's condition deteriorating to such an extent that an emergency admission is required, for example timely community care to prevent an older person's health deteriorating or post operative support to prevent readmission."
4. According to a detailed study of emergency readmissions over a three year period published in nursing older people, researchers found that:-
- about 40% of hospital readmissions were avoidable
- one fifth of readmitted patients will die within 6 months
- multiple medications causes many of the readmissions
ENDS
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