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Roughly a quarter (23%) of councils in the UK have average delays of over a month for care assessments, with some people waiting more than three years, according to a new analysis by the BBC.
The data has also revealed that 40% of local authorities have a waiting time for an initial care assessment of at least three weeks, but five local authorities had examples of people waiting for three years or more.
These long waits for care assessments are having a significant impact on the health and wellbeing of patients and carers, with around 1,400 people estimated to have died while waiting for a care package in 2022/23.
These new figures are based on data from 78 local authorities in the UK, and the Local Government Association (LGA) said the figures showed a “chronically underfunded system and the pressures councils continue to face”.
A lack of social care provision is putting added pressure on family carers
Alongside these new figures, the BBC published the story of 96-year-old Lily, who was in hospital for 15 months, despite being medically fit for discharge after just four.
Lily says she was in bed constantly apart from occasionally being hoisted into a chair. She asked the hospital staff repeatedly when she could go home, but carers were only found after she threated to discharge herself from hospital.
With a lack of social care provision, unpaid carers, such as family members and friends, are experiencing increasing pressure to care for loved ones.
Just today, The Guardian revealed that families struggling to care for someone with dementia have hit “crisis point”, with nowhere to turn for help or support.
Dementia UK says carers and their loved ones are being failed because health and social care support services are already stretched to their limit.
This has led to a surge in calls to its helpline, as Sheridan Coker, the deputy clinical lead at Dementia UK explains: “We’re increasingly being contacted by families who are at risk of harm with no one to turn to. We receive calls where the person with dementia has become so distressed that they have physically assaulted the person caring for them, often a family member.”
Families need guidance and support from professional carers so they can cope. This role is often performed by admiral nurses who bridge the gap between health and social care, but there are not enough of them to help the 700,000 people in the UK who care for a relative with dementia.
“We cannot let this happen any longer”
Martin Jones MBE, CEO of Home Instead UK & International says these stories should serve as a “wakeup call” and propel the government into taking action to solve the social care crisis.
He said: “The news that Lily, a 96-year-old woman deemed medically fit to return home, has instead been stuck in hospital for almost a year is both shocking and completely unsurprising. It’s shocking that in Britain in 2023 we are capable of treating people like this. And it’s unsurprising because we’ve been heading in this direction with inevitability for years.
“Lily has been stranded in hospital simply because there is no one to look after her at home. A chronic lack of community care provision across the UK is directly contributing to the current NHS crisis – and leaving people like Lily in this terrible situation. This is a systemic failure.
“Successive governments have said they want to address the problem with greater resources and recruitment for the care sector – but then there’s always some more pressing crisis and the care problem just gets shelved again.
“But enough is enough. The horrifying case of Lily must be a wakeup call. The time to solve the UK’s care crisis is right now. We cannot let this happen any longer.”