A damming new report has concluded that the chances of elderly people being hospitalized for preventable but potentially deadly diseases have more than doubled in l0 years partly due to crippling care shortages, neglect and failings by GPs.

The study by the charity Age UK, has also estimated that the number of older people in England who need help even in the easiest tasks, like washing and dressing, but have to cope up completely on their own has crossed one million for the first time ever.

It added that yet spending to save them from ending up in hospitals and to make sure they can survive in their own home as long as possible has been cut across the board because the focus of efforts of councils is on the most severe cases.

The report has warned that the combination of an ageing population and reduction of community care services has brought the NHS and care system into a ‘destructive vicious circle’.

The study has drawn on Government and NHS figures. It has warned that the long-term survival of the health and care systems could now be doubtful.

Age UK’s analysis has shown that increase in the incidence of conditions such as pneumonia and urinary tract infections among older people has far surpassed the growth in the elderly population itself.

Even after accounting for the elderly population, the number of over-75s hospitalized with pneumonia has gone up by 128% between 2006 and 2014, from 2,355 admissions per 100,000 people to 5,359 per 100,000.