An independent report has revealed that cuts to district nursing mean older people are turning to acute hospital care.
Industry experts, including the RCN, contributed to research conducted by Christie & Co, which found that the number of district nurses has dropped by 44% since 2010.
With an ageing population, this loss of preventative social care has a huge impact on both patient wellbeing and the emergency care services. The growing lack of community care has resulted in many elderly people attending A&E departments instead, with a 65% increase noted since 2008.