Written in the media on a frequent basis, and going almost entirely without challenge, is the assertion that an elderly population is putting a strain on hospital resources, leading to bed blocking, culminating in waits in A+E and other loss of services.
Examples are Here, and from the BBC here, to point out just a couple.
This is a leading strand in the debate over whether or not the NHS is sustainable.
This blog has already discussed the increase in visits to GPs per person, but here we will look specifically at age.
The ONS population demographics [Table 3] show an increase in the population of those 65+ between 1984 and 2014 of 14.9% to 17.7%.
The population [Table.1] rose between the same period and these two values can be combined to determine that the number of people in the 65+ age group has increased by about a 1/3 in the last thirty years.
That is significant.
But it is only one side of the equation. The other side is the number of available overnight beds. as this number needs to keep pace to avoid the bed blocking, A+E backlog and other associated negative results.
The available number of overnight beds in the UK is shown below.
http://6040split.tumblr.com/post/154047908145/total-available-overnight-hospital-beds-england
The number of beds has been cut by 55%. This is a huge figure that is almost entirely absent from the debate on the NHS crisis.
So, old lady, when you are being blamed for bringing the NHS to its knees, you might well look like that.
