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More homes close as crisis in long-term care deepensShocking new statistics show that care home places for older and disabled people have fallen by 13,400 in the last 15 months.
The report, Care of Elderly People Market Survey 2003, by Laing and Buisson also reveals how 745 independent sector care homes closed during the same period.
These closures follow similar reductions of 14,400 places in 2001 and 17,000 in 2000.
Author of the report, William Laing said: "Without new investment in care home capacity the government will find it more difficult to achieve its delayed discharge targets and local authorities will have to work harder to avoid the fines which will begin to be levied from January next year."
One of the main reasons given for the closures is the partial funding of residents who are the responsibility of the local authorities.
In their defence, many councils claim that money is not being made available from central government to pay the full cost of care and as a result, some commentators suggest the shortfall in care funding now stands at £1bn.
Laing and Buisson estimated the national average 'fair' price for care was £471 per week for nursing and £362 for residential care.
These findings also come just weeks after the Health Service Ombudsman revealed a 50 per cent increase in the number of complaints surrounding the issue of care funding.
A majority of the 4000 complaints made in the last 12 months were related to pensioners who had been charged for continuing nursing care on release from hospital, which should otherwise have been paid for by the NHS.
Critics say the system for assessing what care the NHS should continue to fund and what is the responsibility of the local authority or the individual is still unclear.
Dr Mary Parkinson, NPC health advisor said: "The government has yet to produce a coherent and effective policy that tackles the problem of long-term care and how it should be funded."
Adding to the problems is the impact that evictions from care homes are having on many elderly patients.
One example surrounds the high-profile public inquiry into how an 88-year-old woman died after being evicted from her care home in Gloucester.
The inquiry has called for "a national independent review of social. care funding as a matter of priority."
