ELDERLY people getting home care could miss out on an extra 9,400 hours of support a week if the county does not meet Government targets.

At 93-years-old, Bill Buckingham has said he is “frightened” at the prospect of having to spend his final days in a care home.

But Oxfordshire could be excluded from milllions of pounds of Government money to help those like Mr Buckingham, of Rose Hill, stay in their own homes.

Oxfordshire County Council and Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (OCCG) have been putting together a joint bid for £37.5m from the Better Care Fund, which is aimed at keeping the elderly out of hospitals and care homes.

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But as part of the bid – of which £8m would fund an extra 9,400 hours of home care for the elderly – they must meet national targets including reducing A&E admissions by 3.5 per cent – something they have said is “wholly unrealistic”.

Mr Buckingham, who served with the 4th Battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry during the Second World War, said more money needs to be spent keeping the elderly in their homes.

He said: “I hope it doesn’t come to the fact that I have to move into a home. I have lived here for 70 years and I want to be in my own home. They should certainly make more money available for it.”

Shipton-under-Wychwood resident Elaine Biles receives funding towards home care for her 67-year-old husband Stephen, who has dementia, and agreed more funding is needed. She said: “There are not enough homes, so more funding for home care should definitely be made available to keep people in their homes.”

The county currently provides an estimated 27,000 hours of home care a week, according the report, and says it needs the extra 9,400 hours to cope with demand.

A report on the £37.5m bid by both the county council and OCCG said: “Given that admissions have increased significantly this year, it is wholly unrealistic to commit to that national expectation at this point in time.

“Without these extra [9,400] hours we would not be able to keep pace with demand. More frail older people would wait at home for care to start, leaving them at risk of being admitted to hospital and requiring more input from GPs and community health services.”

They were due to place a bid for the cash on Friday but have admitted they do not stand a chance of meeting the admissions target.

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith has express his concern at potentially missing out on the cash and has tabled a Parliamentary question to discover if other non-compliant bids for the Better Care Fund have been made.

County council leader Ian Hudspeth said he remains confident that the bid will be successful – even though it no longer complies with the Government’s requirements.

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Joe McManners

Joe McManners, clinical chairman of OCCG and an Oxford GP, said: “Together with our partners, we recognise that reducing emergency admissions presents a significant challenge in Oxfordshire, particularly when historically we have received lower funding than other areas.”

The funds which would be made available in the Better Care Fund is not new money and would be reallocated from within the health and social care system.

Department of Health spokesman Alison Langley said there is room for negotiation over what she called the “guidelines”, but added “most areas are already planning to reduce emergency admissions by around this level, and others plan to achieve even greater reduction”.

Emergency admissions

  •  The current level of emergency admissions was up 5.8 per cent for the first quarter of 2014/15 compared to the first quarter of last year.
  •  In the last full year available – 2013/14 – there were 87,741 emergency admissions at all Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust hospitals.
  • Official figures show Oxfordshire was the worst area out of 151 local authorities in England in the 12 months to March.
  • May figures show 8.2 per cent of occupied beds were blocked against a 3.5 per cent target.
  •  An average 128 were blocked at one time and the latest snapshot survey, on June 19, recorded that 104 were blocked.


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