Elderly bed blockers

[CCArchive]

Hot news today. As many as up to twenty percent of NHS beds could be currently blocked by the elderly because there is inadequate social care provision for them to be discharged to. The fact that the government don't know the true figure is telling. How dare the elderly clutter up our wonderful health care services. These services are only for younger, more productive people. The situation is described as intolerable. As if it were the fault of the elderly. I wonder if there might be some kind of connection between this bed blocking and the swingeing cuts in social care budgets ... Which are about to get very much worse ? .Talk about chickens coming home to roost, this is another raft of badly thought through health and social care policies that have been wrecked on the rocks of the demographic time bomb that was forecast, in graphic detail, twenty five years ago. Successive governments have not only ignored this prophecy but have implemented policies that have actually made things worse... as though they were completely unaware of the situation in the first place. I fear for the elderly. There is an unseen cull of the over seventies going on in this country. A great many of the elderly confused and helpless are dying alone in squalour with meaningless care packages in place that allow them the attentions of an over worked and underpaid eighteen year old with vestigial training in talking to the hard of hearing, for twenty minutes a day. Let's see how this unfolds.....