Family Solicitors

Hospital managers at Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospital Trust are threatening families who refuse to take responsibility for elderly relatives with court action.

The Daily Mail reports that families whose elderly relative is “bed blocking” will be given seven days to find them a place in a care home. The trust says that the situation has become so bad that some families are even asking for elderly relatives to be kept in hospital while they take a holiday – one family asked a hospital to hold onto their elderly relative while they went on a two-week break to Turkey, the trust said.

Bed blocking by the elderly became a phenomenon during New Labour’s period of government – including media images of patients kept on trolleys in corridors in NHS hospitals while waiting for admission.

The breakdown in family relationships and community has lead to widespread isolation among the elderly, with many elderly people living alone and without family support.

Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospital Trust said that court action against families who abandon elderly relatives while they are in hospital would be a last resort – but was necessary because of the “enormous pressures” bed blocking causes.

Joyce Robins of Patient Concern said:

“Hospital beds are very valuable – they are not there for elderly relatives to be parked in until it is convenient.

“Hospitals have got to do this, they are very overcrowded.”

Figures released this week show that bed blocking is once again becoming a serious problem in the NHS, with 1,000 elderly patients every day taking up a hospital bed when they could be discharged.

However, without support at home following illness or surgery – or a place in a care home for recuperation – hospitals are unable to discharge vulnerable patients.

Accident & Emergency (A&E) departments across England and Wales are also said to be in “meltdown” because of the number of patients using A&E through being unable to obtain a GP appointment, or because they are not registered with a GP, or are recently arrived in the UK. A&E departments are now asking the public not to go to them unless they are seriously ill or injured.

At Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals, the eviction policy to prevent bed blocking has been put in place across Dorset – and the trust said it hoped Poole and Dorset County and other hospital trusts would follow suit.

A spokesman for Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospital Trust, Katie Whiteside, told BBC Radio Solent:

“We have relatives coming back telling us they don’t like the decor of care homes, or they don’t like the member of staff who met them at the door.

“Sometimes they are decorating the house or having a granny annex built – and they know that, while the patients are here, they are being fed, watered and looked after.

“We would be in a position to commence formal proceedings to actually evict them from their beds if that was necessary. It would be an absolute last resort.

“If we had to go through the courts we would seek to recover costs of up to £50,000, so it’s serious stuff.”

The trust said that when patients and their representatives were given names of care homes from the hospital staff, they would be required to view the homes and come to a decision within seven calendar days.

Chairman of the British Medical Association’s Consultant Committee, Dr Paul Flynn said:

“Pressure on NHS services is at a critical point and cracks are beginning to appear.

“While the NHS is used to seeing a spike in demand during winter months, this year emergency departments have experienced a spring, summer and autumn crisis as well, leaving no spare capacity in hospitals as we approach winter.”

It is estimated many hospitals are now operating above the safe level of 85% occupancy because of a spike in hospital admissions.

Treating overseas patients in the UK is also estimated to cost the NHS £2 billion a year, with A&E departments the gateway to health tourism – estimated to cost £300m a year. In July 2014, the government announced it would start charging more to visitors to the UK who use NHS services, with health tourists having to pay 150% of their treatment costs.

Duncan Lewis Family Solicitors

Duncan Lewis family solicitors can advise on a wide range of family matters, including advice on care of the elderly, elderly abuse and Court of Protection for vulnerable family members.

Duncan Lewis is a leading firm of Legal Aid solicitors and can also advise on:

• Care proceedings
• Child abuse
• Domestic violence
• Co-habiting agreements
• Divorce
• Pre-nuptial agreements
• Wills and trusts.

For expert legal advice on family lawM, call Duncan Lewis solicitors on 020 7923 4020.