Old People- NMC Facts And Figures, UK

Main Category: Seniors / Aging
Article Date: 17 Mar 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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Facts and figures

1. Older people in society

- In 2008, 20.5 million people were aged over 50 years (up 690,000 since 2002) and 2.7 million were aged over 80 years (up 220,000 since 2002).1

- There are now more pensioners in the UK than there are children under 16.2

- In the next 20 years, the number of people aged over 85 years in England will double and the number over 100 years will quadruple.3

- By 2050 there will be around 250,000 people aged over 100 in comparison to the figure of 10,000 in 2008.3

- By 2031, there will be close to 27 million people aged 50 and over.4

2. Care of older people

- In 2006/07 an estimated 2.5 million older people in England had some need for care and support. 1

- In 2006, 70% of people aged 75 years and over reported having a longstanding illness and 50% said longstanding illness limited their ability to carry out daily activities.1

Within hospital:

- Two thirds of NHS beds are occupied by people aged 65 years or older.3

- Approximately 60% of NHS patients will have pre-existing mental health problems or will develop these during their stay in hospital, with depression, dementia and delirium accounting for 80% of these.3

- In 2007, one fifth (20%) of people staying in hospital who needed help to eat, said that they did not get enough support. This shows no improvement from 2006 and a decline since 2002 (18%).1

- In 2004, one in five older people (aged 50 and over) had attended an outpatient or casualty department in the three months prior to interview and one in ten had stayed in hospital as an inpatient in the previous 12 months.4

- The proportion of older people with a long-term illness or disability (LLTI) that restricts their daily activities increases with age. Just over a quarter of men and women aged 50-64 in Great Britain reported such a disability compared with two thirds of men and three quarters of women aged 85 and over in 2001.5

Within care homes/the community:

- At the end of March 2008 there were nearly 373,500 places in care homes for older people6

- In April 2007 420,000 people in the UK lived in care homes, while 346,700 people in England received local authority funded home care each week.1

- The majority of older people continue to live in the community well into later life; just under three quarters of people aged 90 and over were living in private households in 2001.4 (Is there a more up to date figure available?)

- In 2006, 150,000 older people were purchasing care at home privately and 118,000 older people were purchasing places in care homes privately.1

3. Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)

-- The NMC is responsible for setting standards of education, training, conduct and performance for the over 660,000 registered nurses and midwives in the UK:7

- England (80% of all nurses registered)
- Scotland (11% of all nurses registered)
- Northern Ireland (4% of all nurses registered)
- Wales (5% of all nurses registered)

-- In 2007-08, the NMC was alerted to 1,487 potential new cases of malpractice by nurses and midwives. These referrals represent just 0.2% of the total number of people on the NMC register.8

-- Allegations involving patient abuse, neglect of basic care, unsafe clinical practice and failure to act in an emergency or to report incidents accounted for nearly 35% of allegations heard by the NMC Fitness to Practice committees in 2007-08.8

-- Of the incidents dealt with in 2007-2008 cases, just over 42% occurred in the NHS, 30% occurred in residential or nursing homes, 3.8% in private hospitals and 1.1% in an agency (remainder unknown/other).8

-- Over 50% of complaints come from employers, and just over 8% of referrals come directly from members of the public. 29% were from the police and the remainder from other health professionals/others8

References

1. Age Concern 'Older People in the UK - facts and figures'

2. Help the Aged 'Older People in the UK' February 2009

3. Nursing & Midwifery Council Guidance for the Care of Older People, 2009

4. Office of National Statistics, Population of Older People, 2004; http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=874

5. Office of National Statistics, Health and Wellbeing, 2001; http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1267

6. Commission for Social Care Inspection, 'The State of Social Care in England 2007-2008'

7. Nursing & Midwifery Council, 'Statistical Analysis of the Register' 2006/07

8. Nursing & Midwifery Council, 'Fitness to Practice' Annual Report 2008

Source
Nursing & Midwifery Council

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