Dundee City Council has scrapped 15% of its care home places despite being at full capacity every year since 2011, The Courier can reveal.
The drop is due to a change in the way Craigie House, a care home for the elderly, is operated.
New figures, obtained under Freedom of Information legislation, paint a picture of a system in meltdown as the city’s ageing population faces a decreasing stock of council-run care homes.
Private care firms have been brought in to help plug the gap and have upped their price by 7% year-on-year.
A Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership spokesman said: “The situation reflects operational decisions taken over the management of the current Craigie House building.
“A £6.5 million replacement for Craigie House is contained in the city council’s capital plan.”
The council’s care home spaces have been full every year since at least 2011/12 according to information obtained by The Courier.
There are currently 1,085 places provided by external providers on behalf of Dundee City Council within the boundaries of Dundee.
When asked for the figures from previous years, Dundee Council refused to release the information, claiming it was not held.
A report released at the beginning of December showed the ramifications of reducing care home stock, with city health chiefs now preparing for a £400,000 overspend because of a bed blocking crisis.
The lack of available care home spaces was cited as being one of the main reasons behind more than 21 years of bed use wasted in less than 12 months in Dundee hospitals.
Those figures, presented in a report to the Dundee Health and Social Care Integration Joint Board, also highlighted that an extra 1,000 hours of social care from external providers was being paid for to help plug the problem.
The partnership admitted the situation was described as unsustainable when it emerged it was borrowing money from other budget areas to cover the growing expense.
A review into the bed blocking is expected to report back early next year.
At the time, a spokesperson for Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership said: “The majority of delayed patients who are spending more than 72 hours in hospital are mainly due to awaiting place availability in a care home or where people have more complex circumstances.
“Over the last period we have seen a reduction in the number of available care home places within Dundee. In response, we are further developing options to support discharges.”
