Bed-blocking shoots up a third in just one year after Govt cuts to social care, says GMB
Health and social care 'beyond the point of crisis,' shocking new figures show.
Bed-blocking caused by social care cuts has rocketed by a third in just one year, dramatic new figures show.
Delayed patient transfers overall have shot 17% in the past 12 months in another sign that Conservative under-funding is bleeding the National Health Service dry.
In March the amount of time when NHS beds were blocked by acutely ill people whose discharge from hospital is delayed due to a lack of a social care package rose by 31% compared to last year, and by 197% since the same point in 2011.
Overall bed-blocking was up 17% in 12 months, and it was up 62% compared to six years ago.
The disturbing figures are the latest in a string of shocking statistics which prove the NHS can not cope with years of Government underfunding, coupled with increased demand.
Rehana Azam, GMB National Secretary, said:
“These shocking new figures show that health and social care is not on the brink – it is already beyond the point of crisis.
“Missed targets, pay cuts, valued staff fleeing in droves, hospitals on black alert – they’re all telling us the same thing: Our NHS is chronically underfunded and cannot cope.
“Jeremy Hunt is either so incompetent he can’t see this, or is wilfully undermining the NHS to open the door to privatisation.
“All political parties must show how they will turn the NHS around in their manifestos.
“The NHS is on its sick bed, and the Government is bleeding it dry.”
