Social care crisis laid bare as quarter of NHS beds occupied by dementia patients

The scale of the crisis in social care is laid bare as figures show that dementia patients occupy a quarter of all beds in the NHS. People living with the disease often go into hospital after falls or infections as well as for acute medical or surgical problems.

Dementia patients often experience longer hospital stays than the average patient and can be delayed leaving wards due to a shortage of care in the community.

At any one time in the NHS, one in four hospital beds are occupied by people living with dementia, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which says stays on wards can trigger distress, confusion and delirium for patients.

Doctors must carry out a discharge assessment of patients to ensure they are healthy before they can leave hospital. Medics assess a dementia patient’s care needs outside of hospital and discharge can be delayed if these are deemed not adequate.

Demand for social care continues to rise as the population grows older but there is a shortage of workers in the sector. Skills for Care estimated that, in 2022/23 an average of 9.9 per cent - or 152,000 - roles in adult social care in England went unfilled.

This was the equivalent to 152,000 vacancies - down by 11,000 from the previous year, although vacancies remain high compared to the wider UK economy.

Services are so overstretched that people are left struggling without vital support to carry out everyday tasks in their own homes, and lives are being blighted.

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Source: The Independent, 14 January 2024