Ministers are warning that England’s social care system is heading towards a £6bn funding gap unless there is radical reform, the BBC has learned.

Health experts predict the ageing population means state funding for the care of the elderly and disabled will face a huge shortfall within 20 years.

The warnings come as ministers are about to begin a major consultation on how social care is funded. Currently, most people in England have to pay for home help themselves.

State support is means-tested and most people have to pay for any home help, including washing, dressing, cooking, themselves.

Health ministers say they are aware of a widespread feeling that this system is unfair. Also, rapidly growing demand means social care is already being heavily rationed and ministers predict that is set to worsen.

A CARE worker at a nursing home hit a wheelchair-bound pensioner and used soiled water to clean another resident’s teeth.

Round the clock care for dementia patients will be provided by a new Worcestershire facility if a charity’s plans become a reality.

THE manager of a sheltered housing scheme fears she has lost her job and her home – for caring too much.

THREE residents of a Greater Manchester care home at the centre of a police investigation died within weeks of each other, a coroner heard. But the inquest ruled there was no evidence that neglect led to any of the deaths.

Scores of hospital departments such as maternity units and cancer clinics will be closed or merged across the country under plans for a radical shake-up of the NHS.

A new deal for 300,000 disabled survivors of a life-threatening stroke was put in place today. Health ministers handed over £77m from the NHS budget to support the rehabilitation of survivors by local authority social services in England.