Up to 900,000 older people taken to A&E each year due to lack of NHS care at home

Almost 900,000 older people are admitted to hospital every year as an emergency because the NHS is failing to keep them healthy at home, Age UK has warned.

A major lack of services outside hospitals means elderly people are also suffering avoidable harm, such as falls and urinary tract infections, the charity said.

In a new report it urges NHS bosses to push through huge changes to how the “hospital-oriented” service operates and establish “home first” as the principle of where care is provided.

Doing so would reduce the strain on overcrowded hospitals and leave the NHS better set up to respond to the increase in the number of over-65s and especially over-85s, Age UK said.

Its report, on the state of health and care of older people in England, concluded that “our health and care system is struggling, and too often failing, to meet the needs of our growing older population.”

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Source: The Guardian, 11 July 2023