CQC warns of growing ‘care injustice’ – Alzheimer’s Society comment
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published its annual State of Care report, which found that the quality of health and social care in England has been largely maintained over the past year – but that people’s experience of care varies depending on where they live and how well different parts of local systems work together.
The report shows that some people can easily access good care while others experience ‘disjointed’ care, only have access to poor quality services or cannot get the help they need at all. A clear impact of this is pressure on emergency departments, with demand continuing to rise when local health and care systems fail to protect vulnerable people. The CQC warns that recently announced funding injections for the NHS and adult social care risk being undermined by the lack of a long-term solution.
Jeremy Hughes, Chief Executive at Alzheimer’s Society, commented: “People with dementia are the biggest users of adult social care and yet they experience poorer quality care than everyone else, with more than a fifth of dementia care providers failing CQC inspections – a higher proportion than care providers generally. Families call our Helpline in despair because a loved one with dementia needs support but there is nothing available locally or the only care home they can get into is inadequate.
“In 2016 the CQC warned social care was at a tipping point, and this adds to our evidence that the system has clearly passed that point now, leaving 850,000 people with dementia at the mercy of a potentially unsafe system and putting yet more pressure on the NHS. People with dementia have a right to care, and their postcode should not affect that.”
