More elderly patients are having to be readmitted as emergency cases days after being discharged from hospital, official figures show.

Statistics for the first quarter of 2002/03, show 8.0% of elderly patients aged 75 years and over discharged from hospital were readmitted as an emergency within 28 days, with 3.2% re-admitted as an emergency within seven days.

This is a revolving door of government-imposed inefficiency and elderly people are the innocent victims

Dr Evan Harris

This compares to 7.3% and 2.9% for the same period last year.

The figures were criticised by Liberal Democrat health spokesman Dr Evan Harris MP.

He said: "The government's chosen method for reducing delayed discharging is putting so much pressure on hospitals that patients are being discharged too early, either when they are too ill, or are not receiving appropriate care in the community.

"These patients are the ones who are readmitted in an emergency a few days later.

"This is a revolving door of government-imposed inefficiency and elderly people are the innocent victims."

Tories

Shadow health secretary Dr Liam Fox blamed the lack of beds available in care homes.

He said: "Elderly people are being forced back into hospitals because they weren't ready to be discharged in the first place.

"This the clearest possible indication that massive losses of care home beds under Labour mean acute suffering for thousands of vulnerable people."

A Department of Health Spokesperson, said the reasons behind the increase were not yet clear.

"We are conducting a detailed analysis of this slight increase in readmissions.

"Over the same period, delayed discharges from hospitals have fallen from 11.1% to 8.3%. Investment in new services for intensive rehabilitation and support at home means that fewer older people are kept in hospital longer than necessary and can return to live independently in their own home.

"The National Service Framework for Older People sets out a series of standards and targets so that older people get the right help at the right time in the right place - and avoid both unnecessary hospital admissions and readmissions in the longer term."

Waiting list

The figures also show number of people waiting to be admitted to hospital rose by 19,400 between April and June this year.

The rise, of 1.9%, brought the total number waiting for inpatient treatment up to 1,054,700 by the end of June.

The number of people in England waiting more than 12 months for inpatient treatment fell by 1,400 (6.3%) between the end of March and June 2002 to 20,500.

Those waiting more than 15 months to be admitted to hospital fell by 166 to 58 during this time.

The figures also show a 31% drop in the number of last-minute cancelled operations.

The number cancelled fell from 20,800 to 14,400 between the beginning of April and June this year, compared with the same period in 2001.

However 2,377 patients whose operation had been cancelled on the day for non-medical reasons were not admitted within 28 days.

Fewer patients waited more than four hours for a bed on a ward after the Accident & Emergency department had decided to admit them.

However, among patients admitted as emergencies, more waited longer than two hours to be admitted.

Seventy per cent were given a bed on a ward within two hours, which was 2% lower than in the same period during 2001.

Overall 90% of patients were found a bed within four hours, an improvement of 2% percent compared with the previous year.