Hundreds of older people have been left stranded in hospital because of delays to adaptations to their homes, new figures from a charity suggest.
Patients who need grab rails, ramps or other changes to help them to return to their homes spend nearly a month longer in hospital, Age UK said.
The charity has called for all new houses to be designed so that stairlifts and ground-floor showers can easily be added. This would cost housebuilders £1,500 but could save taxpayers’ money if people avoided hip fractures, which cost £12,000 to treat, or £26,000-a-year care homes.
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: “Ensuring all new housing can be easily adapted would save the country millions and help end the nonsense of older people lingering for long periods in hospital because of delays in fitting adaptations.
“Building all new homes to higher accessibility standards would cost a little more today, but it would pay off hugely tomorrow, and both older people and the NHS would substantially gain.”
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Only 3 per cent of homes meet accessibility standards, yet many councils have cut the budget for adapting homes and others fail to co-ordinate properly with hospitals, the charity says.