NHS likely to pick up the tab for social care

8 Dec 10
The NHS risks being forced to pick up rising social care costs as councils struggle to safeguard local services, according to the Nuffield Trust
By Lucy Phillips

8 December 2010

The NHS risks being forced to pick up rising social care costs as councils struggle to safeguard local services, according to the Nuffield Trust.

The health think-tank published a report today on the costs of hospital and council care for 16,479 elderly people who died in three primary care trust-local authority areas in England in 2007. Until now little information has been available on the overlaps between NHS and local authority care.

Some 7.2% of the group used only local authority care in the year leading up to their death, while 49% accessed hospital inpatient care and 23% used both types of services.

For the whole group the cost of council-funded social care was estimated at just under £50m, at an average cost of £3,000-£5,000 per person who died. Any future reductions in the availability of council-funded social care could pass this demand over to hospitals.

The report Social care and hospital use at the end of life also revealed that higher social care costs at the end of life tended to be associated with lower inpatient costs. Local authorities have been given additional funding for social care provision but this has not been ring-fenced, prompting concern that cash-strapped councils will use the money for other services.

Although the NHS’s funding is protected until 2014/15, it will not have the budget increases it has become accustomed to and needs to find £20bn in efficiency savings. Rising costs of drugs and an ageing population are adding to the cocktail of pressures.

Nuffield Trust director and report author Jennifer Dixon said: ‘The findings indicate the vital role that social care can play in supporting people at home in the last months of life. However, unlike health care funding, social care budgets are not ring-fenced so any reduction in social care support offered by local authorities risks reducing support needed for the terminally ill, as well as having real financial implications for the NHS.’

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