The number of residential care home places for the elderly has continued to decrease in the UK, according to a report from Laing & Buisson.
Latest findings by the independent market analyst's Care of Elderly People Market Report 2005 revealed that the number of residential care home places shrank by 8,700 in the year ending April 2005.
Of those, 3,800 were cut back in the independent sector, while a further 4,900 places were lost in local authority run residential homes and continuing care places in NHS hospitals.
This decline was, however, not as steep as in the previous year when 6,600 residential places were lost in the independent sector. This, coupled with the fact that the volume of demand also fell back slightly, has encouraged the Government to believe that the traditional care home sector is in decline and will increasingly be replaced by alternatives such as home care and extra care, said William Laing, author of the report and director at Laing & Buisson.
"Our view, however, is that care home demand may now be on the point of rising once again. While some of the coming expansion in demand will be satisfied by alternatives such as domiciliary care and extra care, it believes it is imperative that commissioners of care services focus on the need to rebuild traditional care home capacity as well," Laing said.
Commenting on the report, Tim Field, managing director of Lifestyle Future, agreed that the diminishing number of residential and nursing homes could cause a problem. However, he added that there are other exciting alternatives developing for people in need of care later in life.
"While the reduced number of care and nursing home places may be an issue for people who are less well off, for those clients who are able to afford an immediate solution, or are seriously planning for future care needs, other options are emerging and the choices are widening," he said.
