Elderly to be given six weeks support at home after hospital stays

The elderly will be given six weeks support so they can stay in their own homes after a stay in hospital, Gordon Brown announced yesterday.
  The Prime Minister said it would be part of his planned new National Care Service.

It could mean tens of thousands of people over 65 who now end up in a care home could have the means to stay at home instead.

However, the funding of the plan remains to be settled and opposition parties questioned whether money would be set aside by Mr Brown and Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary.

In a speech to the King’s Fund, a health think-tank, Mr Brown said: “Our plans for a new national care service will include a clear commitment to roll out to every area of the country, reablement and rehabilitation services.

“This means that to help with the transition back home after a hospital stay, a residential care stay, or simply a fall or accident, people in every community will have access to intensive support services, for between four and six weeks.

“And the vast majority of beneficiaries will be older people on middle incomes or with lower incomes who struggle daily with the costs and problems of living with frailty and disability. They manage now, often with the help of their families and communities, but to imagine them as affluent is simply wrong.”

Mr Brown said that, too often, elderly people are admitted to hospital and “linger” there because the nursing care, rehabilitation, and simple domestic support they need to get back on their feet at home are not available.

A woman with a simple infection may end up being admitted to hospital because of the absence of facilities for care to be offered for a few days at home, said the Prime Minister, adding: “Too often, that hospital admission may mean she will never see her home again, but go from hospital direct to a care home.”

Mr Brown said: “The absence of care at home has consequences – often in the form of unnecessary and expensive care elsewhere.”

He said extending the availability of care in the home would be “at the heart of our vision for the NHS and for social care in the next Parliament”.

The funding issue will be set out in a white paper later this year. He rejected arguments that a National Care Service is unaffordable at a time when the Government is seeking to reduce a record state deficit.

Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said Mr Brown was making promises he knows he cannot keep.

He said: “He says he wants to “guarantee” standards for patients and yet he plans to cut the NHS budget. He claims that he will provide more personalised care for cancer sufferers but just last year he cut the amount the NHS spends on each cancer patient by £650. He says that he will provide cancer sufferers with their own specialist nurse, but the extra money he is providing would only represent 30 minutes of a nurse’s time per patient per year.

“After 13 years of failure it will be the Conservative Party that will have to introduce the focus on helping people live healthier lives, that pushes forward with the social care reform that older people in this country so badly need and deserve, and that creates a patient-centred NHS which manages future demand more effectively.”

Mr Brown said improving social care was vital in an ageing society. Rather than seeing the increasing proportion of elderly people as a “threat or a burden”, society must value the contribution of older people and recognise the duty to offer dignity and security in old age.

Dr Anne Dixon, the the King’s Fund acting chief executive, welcomed the “ambitious” plans.

But she added: “But there is no doubt that increased investment on preventive measures that help people stay independent for longer is needed to reduce the use of expensive acute hospital beds.”