New Age UK report outlines ‘deeply depressing’ healthcare crisis

A harrowing new report from Age UK lays bare the tragic impacts the healthcare crisis is having on patients. New methods for tackling the emergency are vital.

Last week Age UK published their new report, ‘The State of Health and Care of Older People in England 2023’, which states that to prioritise the care needs of our older population, the government need to switch from hospital-based treatments to home care.

The report highlights that one in six emergency admissions of people over 75 occur within 30 days of last being discharged from hospital and 36,000 fewer older people a year are receiving long-term care.

In addition, the report has also found:

• In 2021-22 there were 4.8 million A&E attendances by older people
• The rate of A&E attendances amongst over 80s went up by 40% between 2012-13 and 2021-22
• 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

In a bid to prevent the elderly from receiving poor care treatment, the report suggests that they need to be seen to sooner, however experts warn this will only happen if there is a strong political leadership from the government and a drive right across the NHS and local authorities.

Although, with costs continuing to climb as inflation rates continue to rise, and pressures still being piled onto the NHS, it isn’t reassuring that the government and the NHS will now turn their attention towards helping older people’s care needs. Last month, when the government announced its latest NHS workforce plan, no plans to help the adult social care sector were mentioned.

However, there are some lights at the end of this dark tunnel. Within the report, experts from Age UK have claimed that through some introductions of services, such as virtual wards, integrated frailty services, community falls services and hospital at home services, there is hope that eventually all older people will receive the care they need.

Paul Farmer CBE, chief executive of Age UK, said: ‘In many ways the picture painted by our new report is deeply depressing, but what strikes me the most is the wonderful opportunity we have now to switch to a much more effective approach to providing health and social care services for older people in their own homes and in care homes.

‘After all, if we don’t do it on the back of findings like these, when will we?’

‘Sometimes older people need to go to hospital of course, but at the moment too many are doing so for want of the help they need at home,’ Paul said. ‘Then if they are admitted they are at risk of getting stuck in a hospital bed once medically fit to leave. That’s incredibly miserable for them and also jeopardises their recovery.’

Paul added: ‘We must do better by our older population and I’m sure we can. For example, some of the new hospital at home services and virtual wards are great – we just need a lot more of them, everywhere – with voluntary organisations like Age UK playing a full part alongside others.’

News of the report being published has come after another report was published by the charity about how older people are being seriously affected by the rising cost of living. To see how they have been affected, our latest long-form editorial dives into the devastating reality. 

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