CARE CRISIS: GOVERNMENT REDEFINES “URGENT PRIORITY” SAYS OVER-50S GROUP SAGA.

SAGA

QUOTES

January 3, 2012.

CARE CRISIS: GOVERNMENT REDEFINES “URGENT PRIORITY” SAYS OVER-50S GROUP SAGA.

Commenting on the letter in the Daily Telegraph highlighting the impending care crisis, Saga's head of communications, Paul Green said:

“The delays in social care reform are provoking a critical condition affecting both the care system and the NHS.

“The government says it is an ‘urgent priority’, but it seems to have redefined both words. Coalition Ministers and Shadows alike have been saying it is an urgent priority since well before the 2010 General Election. The credibility of each and every politician hiding behind that faux furrowed-brow statement falls with each utterance.

“‘Urgent priority’ means immediate identification of a problem, immediate proposal of a solution, and immediate implementation of that solution. We’ve seen it with almost-instant changes in gun law and youth unemployment policy, and breast implants could well become the next health issue to be fast-tracked.

“Each of those affects far fewer people – so it remains an utter mystery why an issue affecting not just individuals but their families too, every single one of which is up against a mortal deadline, warrants a different and more sedate definition of ‘urgent priority’.

“Andrew Dilnot has provided some workable and realistic proposals for care funding and support, but that the government has barely uttered his name since July makes us fear for the mortality of those proposals.

“We fear further delay, we fear a damp squib. The tone of Mr Burstow in his statement that plans to change the system will be announced in the spring suggests the government may not consider the care issue to be either ‘urgent’ or ‘a priority’.

"2012 must be a year of action not of delay." Ends

For further information:

Saga Press Office
01303 771529.

www.saga.co.uk

Iain Macauley
im@pressrelations.co.uk
07788 978800

BED-BLOCKING: THE CARE CRISIS LAID BARE - AGAIN

DR ROS ALTMANN

DIRECTOR-GENERAL, SAGA

@SagaRosAltmann

QUOTES

November 8, 2011.

BED-BLOCKING: THE CARE CRISIS LAID BARE - AGAIN.

Dr Ros Altmann, Director General of over-50s group Saga, commenting on the rising level of “bed blocking” in England, said:

“Radical reform seems to be being applied to every aspect of our lives – except care. Why? The benefits – blindingly obvious - could be financially and socially life-changing.

“On average, a hospital bed costs £255 a day – and there were 128,500 patient days of delay in getting people, mainly elderly and vulnerable, back home or into the social care system in August and September 2011 alone. Don’t bother reaching for the calculator – it’s clearly a massive cost, is growing, and equates to just one-sixth of the year.

“This country is wasting billions of pounds paying for older people to be cared for in the most expensive and often most inappropriate places – hospital wards - instead of ensuring they are looked after in their own home or a care home.

“Not only would costs be slashed, it would be vastly more dignified and comfortable for all concerned. We need that radical overhaul of care funding, and proper integration between health and care systems for the increasing numbers of older people in the UK.

“The Andrew Dilnot care funding report ball has clearly been kicked deep into the long grass. Somebody needs to go get it – which would surely help in unlocking the care crisis, yet another facet of which is laid bare here.

“We need to get people out of hospital faster and into the care system rather than staying in hospital longer than they need to, which is worse for them - and much worse for the NHS - or better still, avoid hospital admission in the first place.”

Ends

For further information:

Saga Press Office
01303 771529.

www.saga.co.uk

Iain Macauley
im@pressrelations.co.uk
07788 978800