Emergency hospital treatment received by care home residents fell more than a third during the first three months of the Covid pandemic, according to Health Foundation research.
Emergency hospital admissions from care homes for conditions other than Covid-19 - including strokes and heart attacks - decreased by 36 per cent (13,191 fewer admissions) between March and May 2020 than in the same period in 2019.
The Hospital Admissions From Care Homes in England During the Covid-19 Pandemic report also found routine elective admissions - such as cataract surgery, some cancer treatment and hip replacements - fell by 63 per cent (3,762 fewer admissions) for care home residents in the first three months of the pandemic.
That compares to a 56 per cent reduction in routine admissions for the general population.
The research, which is due to be peer reviewed, provides the first comprehensive and national analysis of all hospital care provided to care home residents during the first wave of the pandemic.
The paper appears to substantiate concerns that care home residents were “particularly hard hit” by the reduction in NHS services, said the charity, and “may have faced barriers to accessing hospital treatment as the NHS rapidly reorganised to free up hospital capacity to care for critically ill Covid patients”.
Health Foundation said the level of unmet need within care homes will now be placing additional strain on the NHS alongside ongoing Covid pressures.
“The scale of the unmet need in care homes is likely to be contributing significantly to the overall backlog of demand for NHS services in England that has increased over the course of 2020 and now stands at 4.5m people who are waiting for hospital treatment – the highest level since comparable records began in 2008,” it added.
Sarah Deeny, assistant director of data analytics at Health Foundation, said: “That the majority of care home residents have now been vaccinated is a substantial achievement and a very positive development.
“But there is now an urgent need to address the substantial backlog of care among residents, alongside the country as a whole. It is vital that we ensure that those living in care homes are receiving appropriate hospital treatment.”
