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BED-BLOCKING in hospitals has risen by nearly a third in just one year due to Tory cuts to social care.
The shocking NHS figures revealed yesterday show that the number of beds taken up for a long period of time has shot up by 31 per cent in March, compared to the same time last year — and are up by 196.9 per cent compared to 2011.
In March, 41,168 people were stuck in hospital.
Funding cuts to social care including a lack of care packages which allow elderly people to live in their own homes were cited as reasons for the increase.
GMB national secretary Rehana Azam said: “These shocking new figures show that health and social care is not on the brink — it is already beyond the point of crisis.
“Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is either so incompetent he can’t see this, or is wilfully undermining the NHS to open the door to privatisation.
“All political parties must show how they will turn the NHS around in their manifestos.
“The NHS is on its sick bed, and the government is bleeding it dry.”
