Patients who are fit to be discharged occupy up to one in three hospital beds in some parts of England due to chronic shortages in social care provision.
There are about 165,000 care job vacancies, according to figures from Skills for Care published last month, which also showed that the social care workforce had shrunk for the first time in close to a decade despite rising demand.
We would like to speak to people working in social care and those affected by the longstanding lack of care. If you’re working in this area, what is the situation like in care homes and for care in the community? What are your main areas of concern? How are you or your loved ones being affected by the shortages?
We are also interested in speaking to bed managers in hospital wards.
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