THE DISTURBING disclosure today, that a growing number of old people are dying within days of going into nursing homes in East Lancashire, reveals a situation that needs urgent investigation.

For though the findings come from a three-year study by health chiefs - prompted by concern among matrons of the homes - they say what is happening rather than why.

The reasons must be found.

The figures show that 34 elderly people died within a week of being admitted to a home last year.

But do we find a clue in the fact that 23 of them had been transferred directly from hospital?

It was only two months ago that another survey showed that too many people were being discharged too soon from Blackburn's two main hospitals, and that a third of residential home owners were worried about the effects.

Furthermore, the concern voiced today by private nursing homes - that residents were dying much sooner since the introduction of the Community Care Act in 1993 - suggests that a cause of this perturbing syndrome is the same as that which probably lies behind the too-rapid discharges from hospital.

Namely, the pressure on NHS and Social Services resources.

For while financially-stretched hospital trusts are burdened with the need to cut waiting lists they are also concerned that beds should not be blocked by elderly patients at a cost to the NHS when they might be in nursing homes at a cost to the Social Services.

Is this budget tussle, then, leading to unwell elderly patients being discharged when they should still be in hospital?

Similarly, does the Community Care Act clue suggest that the Social Services are, perhaps, keeping some elderly people under less-constant supervision in their own homes when they ought to be in more-expensive full-time care in a nursing home?

These concerns must be probed. If, at the root of this rise in old people dying soon after going into a home, money is the factor behind some not receiving the kind of care they need, then there is a sickness in the system that must be dealt with.

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