Elderly admissions to Royal Free more than double in two years

Camden’s Royal Free Hospital has seen the highest surge in emergency admissions for elderly people compared to 18 other London boroughs, a Freedom of Information (FoI) request has revealed.

Between 2022 and 2024, the NHS trust saw the number of inpatients over the age of 65 more than double, with almost 32,000 total admissions last year – up from roughly 14,000 in 2022.

The data comes from an FoI investigation carried out by manufacturers Opera Beds which revealed that, of the London trusts who responded, the Royal Free saw the largest spike.

“Unfortunately, cases of flu have risen exponentially in recent times, with an increasing number of those aged 65 and over admitted for cold-related illnesses at the Royal Free,” the company’s report explained.

The manufacturer also found that people in this age bracket account for over four million hospital bed days annually, due to falls.

During the same period, the London Ambulance Service saw an eight per cent rise in call-outs for this group, with the same rate of increase for call-out incidents relating to falls.

According to NHS UK, around 30 per cent of people aged 65 have at least one fall a year, rising to 50 per cent for those aged 80 and over.

The local authority has previously highlighted the importance of prevention and the work it carries out with local partners to focus on “proactive and joined-up care and support”.

Camden’s deputy leader, Cllr Patricia Callaghan, in 2018 warned that prevention services “remain under-funded and have often been the first to disappear in the face of cuts”.

Falls prevention services in the borough are funded and commissioned by the local NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB).

But the council has assured its preventative health programmes have been protected in recent years, and today (16 Jun) told the Citizen these services had not had their funding cut since 2018.

This includes Camden’s ‘Winter Wellness’ phone line, aimed at helping over-65s living alone to “stay warm, safe, active and connected over the winter months”.

The local authority also commissions GP practices in the borough to perform the preventative NHS health check-up, “designed to achieve early detection of cardiovascular risk factors and conditions”.

In November, Hackney Council made the controversial decision to axe its falls-prevention service due to “unprecedented financial pressures on local government and NHS budgets,” triggering stark warnings from health workers and residents.

The manufacturer’s report added that 3.3 million ambulance callouts were made for over-65s in the UK in the last year.

Meanwhile, 90 per cent of UK hospital trusts saw an increase in emergency admissions for the same group since 2022.

The FoI data also showed that between 2022 and 2024, falls-related emergency admissions to London’s Barking, Havering and Redbridge hospital trusts rose at more than twice the national average rate increase.