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Local authorities and the NHS ‘abandon elderly care’

The NHS Support Federation is calling on all political parties to make plain their policies on long term care for elderly people, and accuses the government of withdrawing fromsuch care ‘by stealth’.

The Fed backs up its claim in a recent report, Stand and deliver, co-published with the West Midlands Health Research Unit. The report charts the transfer of care from the NHS to means tested services in the private sector.

‘Pensioners have reason to be worried’, says the Fed. ‘Not only has the NHS abandoned them but local authorities are also being forced to do so.’

The report points out that in 1995, over 40,000 pensioners sold their homes to pay for care. It calls on local health authorities and social services departments to involve local pensioners groups in modifying local criteria for care.