Number Of Beds In Nursing Homes Fall For First Time In Five Years
The number of beds in nursing homes has fallen for the first time in five years, according to reports from Care Quality Commission.
The CQC said number of nursing homes fell from 4,697 to 4,633 in 2015-2016, with the number of beds down from 224,674 to 224,026, the first decline in five years.
The CQC attributed the drop to difficulties in recruiting and retaining nurses.
It said the “difficulty nursing homes have in recruiting and retaining nursing staff” and the resulting reliance on agency staff has already “influenced” the quality of care offered in nursing homes and is now “beginning to… impact on capacity”.
Recently the Skills for Care publication of The State of the Adult Social Care Sector and Workforce in England reported that nine per cent of the 47,000 nursing jobs in adult social care are vacant and in the last year over a third of nurses left their post, which has led to many services relying upon agency staff, which undermines their ability to provide continuity of care for residents.
