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Older people's tsar Ian Philp has given a positive assessment of health and social care services for older people and called for more client-focused services in the future.

Publishing his annual report this week, Philp praised the government for reducing delayed discharges of older people from hospital to the point where it could cease to be a "significant issue for the health service within four years".

Intermediate care beds and places have more than doubled since 1999, with the number receiving intermediate care almost tripling in that five-year period. Those receiving more than 10 hours' intensive home care had also risen by around 8 per cent between 2002 and 2003.

Philp also highlighted the fact that 80 per cent of local authorities had implemented the single assessment process, where health and social care professionals jointly assess clients' needs; that the number of old age psychiatry consultants had risen by about 20 per cent; and that more operations for acute conditions were taking place.

However, he identified mental health services for older people as particularly needing attention. He said that the "artificial" age barrier between adult mental health services and those for older people needed to be scrapped as it could affect access to services.


"There is a strong tradition in mental health services based around age determining access but people should receive services according to need. We want to ensure older people get a fair share of increased funding in health and social care, but I'm not an advocate of ringfencing it."

Philp called for a greater use of direct payments but said this might not be appropriate for everyone.

• Better Health in Older Age is available from www.doh.gov.uk