Home care system 'Close to breaking point'

Budget cuts and under-funding are leaving thousands of older people across Wales struggling to live at home independently.

And many are being hospitalised with preventable conditions because the system that should help them with basic tasks such as eating and washing, is close to breaking point.

That's the warning today from Age Cymru as we publish a report called ‘Improving domiciliary care for older people in Wales'. 

The report's author Dr Rosanne Palmer says:

"The home care - or domiciliary care system in Wales is under pressure from a combination of an ageing population with complex long-term health and care needs, budget cuts and under-funding.

"Almost half of all people aged 85 and over in Wales are receiving these social care services from their local authority and demand is growing.

"With this growth in demand and financial pressures there has also been a tightening up of eligibility criteria for these services in recent years.

"And there is strong evidence that people who are now not entitled to receive care from their local authority or can't afford to pay for it privately, are struggling on until they reach a crisis point and have to rely heavily on family and friends."

Dr Palmer concludes:

"We need better quality and better funded care services to tackle this crisis and stop preventable hospital admissions by providing earlier support for people to live at home.

"Long-term, this should save the expense of hospital treatment; reduce the number of days that older people spend in hospital and remove the ‘exit block' that hospitals face when they are unable to discharge patients who are medically fit to return home, but cannot access the care they need to support them to do so."