Over 1,400 NHS dementia patients to be stranded in hospital over Christmas

Lack of social care funding is turning wards into waiting rooms as new figures show dementia patients are delayed up to 10 times longer than hospital patients without the condition, charity warns.

The Alzheimer’s Society said a lack of social care funding was ‘turning wards into waiting rooms’, and a £2 billion shortfall meant there was not enough support for people with dementia.

An analysis of hospital audits by the charity found that people with dementia stayed an additional 500,000 days in hospital despite being well enough to be discharged - costing the NHS more than £170 million.

The society said this was a conservative estimate as only two out of three people with dementia have been diagnosed.

Hospitals can be upsetting and confusing environments for those with dementia, the charity says, and can negatively impact patients, causing some to become too frail to be discharged.

Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “From the woman who spent two months on a bed in a corridor because there were no available care home places, to the man who died after months of waiting left him debilitated by hospital-acquired infections, people with dementia are repeatedly falling victim to a system that cannot meet their needs.

“One million people will have dementia by 2021, yet local authorities’ social care budgets are woefully inadequate, and no new money has been promised in the budget to cope with increasing demand.”

Responding to the analysis, Margaret Willcox, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), said: “As part of a caring society, people with dementia need and deserve specialist care and support. A busy acute hospital can add to their confusion and disorientation as they thrive better when in familiar surroundings, especially their own home, with people they know.”

Izzi Soccombe, chairman of the LGA’s Community Well-being Board, said: “These tragic stories of people fit to leave but stuck in hospital over Christmas reinforces our urgent call for genuinely new funding for adult social care in the Local Government Finance Settlement.

“We estimate adult social care faces an annual funding gap of £2.3 billion by 2020. It was hugely disappointing that the Chancellor found money for the NHS but nothing for adult social care in the Autumn Budget. Spending plans for the new NHS funding should be agreed with local government to ensure its most effective use locally.

“Councils are also playing a leading role in improving the lives of people with dementia and their families through all of the services they provide, including housing, transport, leisure services, social care, public health and community safety.

“However, fundamental changes to the way we fund adult social care are needed if we are to deliver a long-term sustainable system that works for everyone in society and meets their needs with safe and high-quality services.”

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “This is a very small survey based on statistics from September and isn’t representative of the actual situation.

“No one should be stuck in hospital when their treatment has finished, that’s why we’ve given an extra £2 billion funding for social care over the next three years and next summer we will publish plans to reform social care to ensure it is sustainable for the future.”