In response to the findings of the Health Select Committee report on winter planning in A&E departments, Janet Morrison, Chief Executive of Independent Age, the older people’s charity, said:
“Week after week we are seeing reports of a health and care system in crisis. And today we are hearing yet another gloomy diagnosis of how bad things have become, this time in A&E departments where waiting time targets are being missed for the frail and sick to be admitted, discharged or transferred. When we are learning that ambulances are struggling to attend to new emergencies because of capacity problems in hospitals, we really do have to wonder how dysfunctional the system has to become before the Government takes action. A good start would be to use the upcoming Autumn Statement to improve funding for social care. The alternative can only ever lead to mounting pressures at local hospitals - and depressingly, more elderly people turning up at A&E.”