Care England has challenged recent assertions that a lack of capacity in social care is the driving force behind increased corridor care and NHS delays.
Chief executive Professor Martin Green said it was instead ‘a planning, funding and coordination issue’.
The representative for adult social care providers in England pointed to reports suggesting the recent corridor care crisis had been caused by difficulties finding care homes or community care packages for elderly and vulnerable individuals, exacerbating delays in emergency departments and overcrowding.
However, it highlighted data from a health and social care vacancy tracking technology – Capacity Tracker – which suggests there is ‘significant’ numbers of available care home beds across the country.
It said the latest data showed that care home occupancy for older people nationally remains ‘stable’ at around 85%, with 43,000 beds currently available for admission.
Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said: ‘This is not a capacity issue; it’s a planning, funding, and coordination issue.
‘Care homes across England have been reporting admittable vacancies, yet the system is unable to utilise this capacity effectively.’
Professor Green said Care England warned the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) about ‘the risks’ of insufficient winter planning, but believes these warnings were ‘ignored’, leading to the current crisis.
Care England added the ‘failure’ of health and social care commissions to ‘work with the sector’ has been worsened by a lack of government funding.
Professor Green added that the ‘absence of winter planning’ revealed a ‘business as usual approach’ that is ‘dismissive’ and ‘dangerous’ for the sector.
Care England is now calling on the government to develop a recurring national winter strategy for social care and commit to ‘sustainable’ social care funding.
A report from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) last week saw thousands of nurses report shocking experiences of patients are dying, miscarrying and suffering cardiac arrest in hospital corridors due to insufficient space and discharge delays.
The RCN said corridor care was now ‘widespread’ and a regular experience for patients and staff, with its report suggesting issues around GP practice and community care access were compounding the issue.
One nursing staff member within the report warned that ‘too many patients’ were stuck in hospital as they were unable to be discharged because of lack of community care.
Another described the social care system as ‘absolutely broken’ and that they were ‘totally disillusioned with the NHS’.
In December, the RCN warned that there was ‘barely a spare bed left’ in NHS hospitals due to a lack of capacity in social care.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said it is ‘shocking’ that corridor care has become ‘a normal feature’ in hospitals, and that patients are receiving ‘unacceptable standards of treatment’.
‘In our first six months, we’ve ended the strikes so staff are on the frontline not the picket line, introduced the new RSV vaccine, and we have vaccinated more people against flu than last winter. It will take time to fix our broken NHS, but it can be done,’ they added.
