By Richard Johnstone | 12 March 2013
People with dementia are not receiving the help they need because health and care services are ‘struggling’ to cope, the Care Quality Commission has warned.
The health watchdog’s latest Care update report found people with dementia living in a care home were more likely to go to hospital for avoidable conditions than those without dementia. Once in hospital, they were also more likely to stay longer, be readmitted, and die there.
Some NHS services and care homes had improved their care of people with dementia, but a minority had not, the report found. In almost a third of hospital admissions of people with dementia, there was no record of the individual’s condition.
Health and social care services must improve, the update concluded. To achieve this, there must be better integration to ensure quality care is provided across all hospitals and care homes.
‘This Care Update finds that the health and social care system is struggling to care adequately for people with dementia,’ it stated.
‘This is having an impact on hospital capacity and resources. In more than half of primary care trust areas in the country, people with dementia living in a care home are more likely to go into hospital with avoidable conditions than similar people without dementia.’
This led to questions about whether NHS services could cope with this demand, the report added.
The update is based on more than 20,000 inspections carried out between April 1 and December 31 last year.
It also looked at care of people with learning disabilities and mental health problems in the independent sector, and found large disparities in quality.
Private care homes and community services had some way to go before they were providing good care in all cases. Where improvements needed to be made, they were not happening quickly enough, the report added.
CQC chief executive David Behan said the commission would share evidence of good practice to drive change in providers and services that needed to improve. ‘A patient-centred culture of care needs strong leadership, openness and transparency, and CQC will look closely at this in the coming year, particularly in those services caring for some of the most vulnerable people in our society,’ he added.
Responding to the report, the NHS Confederation said the health and care system ‘is probably under the most pressure it has ever experienced’ due to financial pressures and government reforms.
Chief executive Mike Farrar said: ‘Until every patient and service user, in every part of the country, gets first class care every single time, we are failing to achieve the standards the public rightly expects of us.
‘The fact that care home residents who have dementia are more likely to require hospital treatment for avoidable conditions than people without dementia is wholly unacceptable. The number of people with dementia is rising, and is expected to reach 1 million in the next 30 years, so we must prepare properly now.’
