The leading voice of adult social care providers has challenged the assertion that a lack of capacity in care settings is driving NHS delays.
A new report from the Royal College of Nurses (RCN) has highlighted there is a ‘corridor care crisis’ infecting hospitals across the UK.
Made up of 400 pages, the reports contents are comprised of thousands of harrowing stories from nurses who have been forced to deliver care to patients in corridors due to there being a huge shortage of beds.
One nurse said in the report: ‘A 90-year-old lady with dementia was scared crying and urinating in the bed after asking several times for help to the toilet. Seeing that lady, frightened and subjected to animal-like conditions is what broke me. At the end of that shift, I handed in my notice with no job to go to.’
Reasons for conditions in hospitals reaching breaking point have been pinned to a number of different factors. One includes severe staff shortages, and another is reported difficulties in finding spaces in care homes.
However, Care England have challenged the latter citing data from the Capacity Tracker that highlights significant available care home beds across the country. Figures show care home occupancy for older persons nationally remains stable at around 85%, with over 43,000 beds available for admission.
‘It’s not a capacity issue; it’s a planning, funding, and coordination issue,’ Professor Martin Green OBE, chief executive of Care England said. ‘Care homes across England have been reporting admittable vacancies, yet the system is unable to utilise this capacity effectively. We warned the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) about the risks of inadequate winter planning before. These warnings were ignored, leaving hospitals struggling to manage the entirely predictable pressures of winter.’
On the subject of funding, Professor Green references the improved Better Care Fund (iBCF) which has stuck t £2.14bn since 2022-23, despite rising inflation rates.
‘The absence of real-term funding growth in the iBCF has forced local authorities and providers into untenable decisions, reducing service availability when it is needed most. However, this is just one example of how the government has introduced unfunded policies that undermine the sector. They must urgently address their entire approach to funding the sector to prevent further strain,’ Professor Green continued.
In response to the devastating crisis brought forward by the RCN, Care England are now calling on the government to make vital changes. These include:
- Develop a recurring national winter strategy for social care to prevented repeated failures.
- Commit to adequate and sustainable social care funding by increasing the iBCF in line with inflation and establish a long-term funding settlement for adult social care.
‘Social care is the backbone of the NHS, and its underfunding is crippling the entire system. Without swift and decisive action, the consequences for individuals, who deserve the right care, will be severe,’ Professor Green concluded.
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