Introduction
Discharging older people from hospital involves not only hospitals, but also community health and social care services as many older people need some support in the short or longer term to allow them to live in their own homes or to take up a place in a care home. The number of older people (aged 65 and over) in England is increasing rapidly, by around a fifth every 10 years. Emergency admissions of older patients have gone up at an even faster rate—by 18% between 2010–11 and 2014–15. This rising demand for services, combined with restricted or reduced funding, is putting pressure on the capacity of local health and social care systems. Official figures show the number of delayed transfers for older people—that is where a patient remains in hospital after the clinicians and professionals involved in their care decide they are ready to leave—increased by 31% to 1.15 million bed days between 2013 and 2015.
© Parliamentary copyright 2015
19 July 2016