Responding to the latest monthly performance statistics from the NHS, Simon Bottery, Director of Policy and External Relations at Independent Age, the older people’s charity, said:
“Today figures show that – despite one of the warmest Novembers on record - our health and care system is struggling and failing to cope with the huge pressures placed upon it.
“As our population ages, more people are going to A&E, waiting longer to be admitted to hospital beds and more of them are then stuck in those hospital beds when well enough to leave because care and support is not available for them.
“The figures demonstrate the clear need for more funding, more services and better integration of health and social care. Yet we are reducing our spending on the NHS as a percentage of the nation’s GDP and slashing social care. That’s why we support the call for a cross-party commission to consider the health and care system we will need in the future and how we will pay for it.”