WORRYING figures show the number of elderly people taken to accident emergency has skyrocketed in Dorset as they are being 'trapped' in the system.

A leading charity has said that an 80 per cent increase in the number of elderly patients admitted over the last five years shows they are in a 'vicious circle' of going in to hospital.

Age UK has described the situation as a "crisis in social care," ranging from a shortage of care home places to a lack of district nurses to help people in their own home.

Dorset NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has seen more than 260,000 accident and emergency admissions from the elderly in the past five years, nearly an 80 per cent increase from 2010-11 to 2014-15.

Manager at Age UK Dorchester, Di Lawrence, said it is a "vicious circle".

She said: "Until the government recognises that providing decent care for the older generation is a priority, a financial priority, not just an important discussion topic, many older people will continue to live with poor health, poor quality of life, and poor decisions made on their behalf."

According to new statistics from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), in 2010-11 NHS Dorset CCG saw 6,901 hospital A&E admissions from 65 to 69 year olds, 13,390 admissions from those aged 70 to 79 and 17,187 from those aged 80 and over.

However, in 2014-2015 this had significantly increased to 13,184 A&E admissions from 65 to 69 year olds, 23,450 from those aged 70 to 79 and 30,626 from those aged 80 plus.

Adam Collinge, operations officer for South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We do have a very high elderly population in Dorset with many more visiting the area throughout the year and as such is always a challenge for the hospital and Ambulance Services.

"Many of the elderly suffer with chronic conditions that can be exacerbated quickly and thus require further care. As we get older, osteoporosis can affect us, so for example, a minor fall at home due to reducing mobility can cause broken hips, whereas, with the younger generation, this would not be so severe.

"We find a substantial amount of the elderly live alone which, due to infections or poor mobility, mean that they cannot cope by themselves and sometimes admission to a hospital is the only answer if there isn’t a care package in place or relatives are not available.

"However, we are making great strides in trying to keep as many patients out of hospital as we can. Local GP surgeries are now implementing admission avoidance plans for the elderly, Dorset County Council has a night domiciliary service in place in our larger conurbations and South Western Ambulance’s Right Care initiative is in its second phase of operations which try and provide the right care pathway for our patients who don’t need admission and would benefit from another, more specialist service which we can arrange."

Di added: "One of the things that we are seeing is that a lot of elderly people do not have a support package. It is only when they have a fall or are taken into A&E that they are then given a care package. We have a lot of families ringing us asking us what to do because they just don't know. Elderly people are just continuing on and on and struggling to do so. A lot of people have the expectation that they are going to stay in the homes longer too. "

In 2010-11 NHS Dorset CCG saw 6,901 hospital A&E admissions from 65 to 69 year olds, 13,390 admissions from those aged 70 to 79 and 17,187 from those aged 80 plus.
In 2011 to 2012 there were 8,371 admissions from 65 to 69 year olds, 15,081 from those aged 70 to 79 and 19,605 admissions from those aged 80 plus.
In 2012 to 2013 there were 10,843 admissions from 65 to 69 year olds, 17,877 from those aged 70 to 79 and 21,943 from those aged 80 plus.
In 2013 to 2014 there were 12,413 admissions from 65 to 69 year olds, 21,415 from those aged 70 to 79 and 27,878 from those aged 80 plus.
In 2014 to 2015 there were 13,184 admissions from 65 to 69 year olds, 23,450 from those aged 70 to 79 and 30, 626 from those aged 80 plus.