Provision of residential care for vulnerable old people

Abstract

A postal questionnaire was sent to old age psychiatrists in England and Wales on a list held by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in order to examine levels of long term care beds for vulnerable elderly people. Districts with higher long stay hospital bed provision were found to have lower numbers of rest/ nursing home beds. The findings also suggest that nursing/rest home beds are considered to be complementary, in that the addition of one to the other approaches a similar level in most districts. Long stay hospital beds do not appear simply to be alternatives to nursing/ rest home beds, since the demand for other forms of institutional care was reported to have escalated disproportionately in Districts where hospital long-term care was reduced.