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Deaths caused by hospital readmission set to rise
October 1, 2003 12:01 AM
Deaths caused by emergency readmissions into hospitals will rise because of the Government's policy of fining social services judged to have large numbers of 'bed blockers' under their care, Paul Burstow MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on Older People, warned today.
Patients who are ejected from hospital too early often have to be readmitted. According to latest figures, one in five readmitted patients (28,000 people in total) over 75 die within 6 months.
With increased pressure from the threat of Government fines, the rate of early ejections from hospital is set to rise leading to an increase in hospital readmissions or so called 'boomerang blockers'.
The Delayed Discharges Act which comes into force on the 1st October 2003 puts forward a system of fines which starts on January 2004.
Warning that the increase in 'boomerang blockers', caused by Government fines, will endanger the lives of the elderly, Paul Burstow MP said:
"Fining social services in this way is providing an incentive for chucking the sick and elderly onto the street. It creates upheaval for the most elderly in society when they are at their most vulnerable.
"The death rate of those over 75 and readmitted into hospital is already unacceptably high. 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 further.
"Instead of having the ludicrous situation where the Government passes money to social services on the one hand and then takes it away through arbitrary fines, services would benefit by having the money going directly to the front line.
"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 to follow…)
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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