Age UK issues a clarion call for joined up home and community-based care for older people
Age UK has issued a clarion call for a big shift towards joined up home and community based health and social care services for older people.
1 in 6 emergency admissions of people over 75 occur within 30 days of last being discharged from hospital.
A major new report by Age UK documents how our health and care system is struggling, and too often failing, to meet the needs of our growing older population. There appears to be an over-reliance on acute hospital-based care and Age UK are calling for more focus to be put on prevention and early intervention to enable older people to stay fit and well in their own homes, and in care homes. This allows older people to stay in their own homes as well as alleviating hospital pressures.
The new report shows how significant numbers of hospital admissions of older people could be avoided if they received help earlier on, before small health problems deteriorate resulting in urgent clinical support.
In 2019/20 alone there were 855,000 emergency admissions to hospital of older people which could have been avoided with the right care at the right time.
There is a need for strong Government support and leadership as well as a drive across NHS and local authorities to make the proposals happen.