A Burton charity boss has lamented a "very sad" lack of resources which will leave more than 1,400 dementia sufferers stranded in UK hospitals on Christmas Day.
The Alzheimer's Society says the patients are well enough to be discharged but it believes that a £2 billion shortfall in social care funding was leading to bed-blocking for many dementia victims.
And Jane Ingram, chief officer at Age UK Burton, said inadequate resources and an increasingly ageing population meant there was no solution in sight to ease the crisis.
Bosses from the Alzheimer’s Society blamed a lack of social care funding for "turning wards into waiting rooms" after their investigation revealed dementia patients were delayed up to 10 times as long as those without the condition.
With no cure for dementia or drugs to slow progression of the disease, hundreds of thousands of people in the UK have to rely on social care rather than the NHS.
The Alzheimer's Society says that a shortfall in social care funding meant there was not enough support for people with dementia.
The charity studied hospital audits and found that people with dementia stayed an extra 500,000 days in hospital despite being well enough to leave, costing the NHS more than £170 million.
Jane Ingram of Age UK Burton said: "I really don’t think that anything is going to change. It is about availability of space and resources and there are no available beds in respite or residential care homes so that is where they stay and they become bed blockers.
"It is a very sad situation but it is not the fault of social services or the hospitals. There are simply not enough resources to go around and with the ageing population getting bigger it is just going to get worse. I don’t know the answer."
Experts say longer than necessary stays in hospital can have severe consequences for patients, as they may become too frail to be discharged home, while hospitals can also be upsetting and confusing environments for dementia sufferers.
Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society, said more money was needed for social care to reduce pressure on hospitals.
He said: "With such scarce social care funding, wards are being turned into waiting rooms, and safety is being jeopardised.
"One million people will have dementia by 2021, yet local authorities' social care budgets are woefully inadequate, and no new money has been promised in the budget to cope with increasing demand."
Karen Moore, whose father had dementia and was stranded in hospital for six months, said: "Mum died of cancer while Dad was stuck in hospital, so I was grieving while also trying to sort out Dad's care.
"It was a nightmare. The hospital was great, but it wasn't the right environment for Dad and we were under pressure to free up a bed.
"But because his needs fluctuated so much it was impossible to get him sorted with social care, so he was stuck in hospital for six months.
"Dad got infection after infection; it was like he was being taken down by a pack of wolves. Eventually, he died on the ward."
Despite the worrying findings Jane Ingram said the festive season didn't just bring "doom and gloom" to the elderly.
She said: "Christmas also brings out many positive sides and we do have lots of people in the community such as churches and residential care homes that invite people who have nowhere else to go for Christmas lunch."
The Department of Health said the survey was "small" and did not "represent the real situation."
A spokesman said: "No one should be stuck in hospital when their treatment has finished, that is why we have given an extra £2 billion funding for social care over the next three years and next summer we will publish plans to reform social care to ensure it is sustainable for the future."
