Health and care system for older people ‘underperforming in England’

A new report has indicated that severe stresses are compromising the performance of the health and care system for older people in England.

Conducted by Age UK, the research indicated that these trends are leading to higher costs, poorer health outcomes and worse patient and service user experience, which is a major problem for older people who are at risk of ill health.

Between 2005 and 2016, the number of people aged 65 or over in England is expected to increase by 18.8 percent – or 1.5 million people, with the biggest growth among over-85s, up by 29.3 percent.

It was also noted that disability-free life expectancy is rising more slowly than overall life expectancy, yet government spending on home care for older people fell by one-fifth between 2010-11 and 2013-14.

More than one million older people in England now have at least one unmet social care need, with emergency hospital admissions of people aged 65 or older increasing by one-fifth between 2005-6 and 2012-13.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK said: "If an older person asked us today how confident we were that their health and care needs will be met well in the future, we would be whistling in the dark if we gave a wholly reassuring answer."