Spending cuts will ‘block NHS beds’

The NHS Confederation, which represents NHS trusts, said cuts in local authority budgets will mean reduced care and services for the elderly and vulnerable.

Nigel Edwards, the acting head of the NHS Confederation, said that while they welcomed the £2 billion allocated for social care in the Comprehensive Spending Review, there was still enormous pressure on local authorities. Central Government support for councils in England will be reduced by 27 per cent over the next four years.

The results, Mr Edwards said, was that patients needing treatment would not be admitted because of bed blocking – or delayed discharge. In a letter to The Daily Telegraph Mr Edwards said: “When it comes to the care of the most vulnerable in our society, it really is essential that the NHS and local authorities are in it together.”

The Labour government manged to reduce bed blocking at one stage by increasing funding and by fining councils if they took too long to get the patient back into their own home or to find them a place in a care or residential home.

But by 2007, figures showed delayed discharges rising sharply as the funding decreased. In that year, it was estimated that nearly one million “bed days” were lost because of delayed discharge and in figures released to the Liberal Democrats it was shown that it was costing the NHS £100 million a year.

Even though NHS funding has been ring-fenced, the growing elderly population means that any extra money will fail to cope with their needs. The Kings Fund has already warned there needs to be another 1 per cent on top of what has already been made available just to stand still.

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Local authorities have to spend 50 per cent of their budget on education. Of the remaining 50 per cent, 35-40 per cent is taken up by social care.

Richard Jones, of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said they they believed they could deliver 3 per cent efficiency savings year on year by providing good quality support and information. Mr Jones said that could mean a 12 per cent or £1.5 bn over the four years. But, he said, it does not get us the 27 per cent lost from Government.

The Department of Health said that it was understood that social care could have an impact on the NHS and that was why they were strengthening programmes that could integrate hospital care with care in the community, as well as providing extra funding.