Moving pensioners out of hospital

Warning Over Plight of Elderly

Under new Government plans, thousands of pensioners will be moved out of hospitals back into the community this winter, once they have got over the worst of their illnesses.

The aim is to clear space for emergency admissions in a Government bid to avert a winter bed crisis.

But Help the Aged and Age Concern campaigners have warned that under-funded social services and community care programmes might be unable to cope with the added burden of supporting elderly people discharged from hospitals.

"We need to make sure the funding is there for Social Services. We are concerned Social Services will be asked to meet these needs and won't be able to because of a lack of resources," said an Age Concern spokesperson.

Beds at a premium

Mervyn Kohler, head of policy at Help the Aged, warned that that many elderly people and their relatives would be unable to cope unaided with life outside hospital.

"In trying to get an efficient health service, we have forgotten the needs that a lot of older people have for considerable convalescent support, getting over their operations and illnesses," he said.

The former union leader and pensioners' champion Jack Jones said he was appalled by the prospect of elderly people being cleared out of hospitals.

"I will do all I can to oppose this. I hope that Frank Dobson will think again. I don't think anyone is in hospital who doesn't need to be there," he said.

The Department of Health said discharging elderly people would be done through greater collaboration between health authorities and trusts and social services, not through extra funding.

"If it is properly managed and organised this won't be a resource problems for social services," said a spokesman.

"We need to identify problems and make sure good practice is spread throughout the country," he said.

The decision to send elderly people home from hospitals comes after reports that the Health Secretary Frank Dobson has been warned that the worst bed crisis in a decade will ensue before Christmas unless action is taken.

The decision has been attacked by the opposition. "The difficulty that Frank Dobson is in is that he has raised people's expectations, during the election they said that a Labour government would mean that waiting lists would fall," said the Shadow Health Secretary John Maples.

"By this winter, if he hasn't found some way of alleviating this problem, it will clearly be his responsibility," he said.

The Liberal Democrats were also critical. "It is astonishing the Government seems to think that social services have funds sloshing around available to care for hospital patients discharged early to solve the beds crisis," said their health spokesman Dr Evan Harris.

"This just shows that the Liberal Democrat solution of accepting that extra funds in the NHS are desperately needed was the correct approach and that Labour is hoist on the Tory petard of its spending plans," he insisted.

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