A UNIVERSITY professor has called for more money to be ploughed into elderly care as demand soars for care home places.

Oxford University's Sir Andrew Dilnot said more attention and action is needed as figures reveal almost 190,000 new care home places will be needed over the next two years.

The number of people aged 65 years or older who will need care home places will rise by 85.7% by 2035, according to a new study published in medical journal The Lancet.

Sir Andrew, who chaired a government review on the funding of care and support, said the projections "demand attention and action".

He added: "Expenditure on the care of older people will need to increase substantially and quickly.

"It will be important to ensure that this expenditure is managed efficiently, and in particular that the boundary between health care and social care is well handled."

Increases in life expectancy have coincided with rises in the number of years that older adults spend with substantial care needs, the authors of the latest figures found.

The study found for adults over 65, the number of years spent with substantial care needs nearly doubled between 1991 and 2011 - rising from 1.1 years to 2.4 years for men, and from 1.6 years to 3.0 years for women.