Responding to the latest monthly performance statistics from the NHS, Janet Morrison, Chief Executive of Independent Age, the older people’s charity, said:
“This January saw ambulance response targets missed for the eighth month in a row, the worst performance against the A&E waiting times target since data was first collected in August 2010 and the highest number of healthy patients stuck in hospital beds in any month since August 2010.
“It is taking longer to get patients to hospital, they are waiting longer once they are there and are more likely to be stuck in a hospital bed because support is not in place to discharge them. As the largest group of service users in the NHS, older people are going to feel the impact of these failures.
“The financial pressures and demographic challenges facing the NHS and social care are only going to get worse, but we’ve heard no convincing answers from Westminster for how this decline in performance will be halted. That is why we support calls for a cross-party, independent commission on the future of health and social care in this country.”