Call for Free Personal Care for the Elderly

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 27th Feb 2006

South East Cornwall's Liberal Democrat MP has called on the Government to provide free personal care for the elderly following reports that millions of pensioners are malnourished.

Last week, The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) advised hospitals to examine new patients for signs of malnutrition following a report that up to 60% of pensioners being admitted to hospital are malnourished.

A report in December claimed that over 3 million people in Britain are malnourished, including 10% of pensioners living in their own homes.

In Scotland, personal care for the elderly is provided free of charge, but pensioners in England have to pay for help with basic tasks such as washing, dressing, cooking, eating and shopping. The government claims that providing this help for free would be too expensive, but the cost of treating malnourished patients is estimated at over £7bn every year.

Colin Breed commented:

"It is crazy to draw an artificial line between "personal care" and "nursing care".

"It's obviously a false economy to cut costs on preventative care. By providing free help with shopping, cooking and feeding, we could stop people getting ill in the first place. This would not only give a better quality of life to millions of pensioners, but it would save the NHS billions of pounds too.

"The government has poured taxpayers money into the NHS over the last few years, but this is another example of how the amount of money spent is irrelevant if it is not spent wisely.

"The situation is made worse by increasing gas prices and the closure of village shops, leaving pensioners with less money to spare for home help and less opportunity to do their own shopping locally.

"This government simply doesn't understand rural communities or use joined-up thinking in the way it spends our money."