Elderly patients are suffering a “diminished quality of life” because enormous pressures on the social-care system mean they are not receiving the help they need, a committee of MPs is warning.

A report by the Health Select Committee has stated that the Government’s controversial Health and Social Care Bill will do nothing to integrate the current fragmented and failing system.

MP’s are calling for a single local body with power to commission “joined-up” health, support services and housing as opposed to the current system of multiple funding sources.

Stephen Dorrell, chairman of the Health Select Committee, said: “It is impossible to deliver either high quality or efficient services when the patient is passed like a parcel from one part of the system to another, without any serious attempt to look at their needs in the round.”

The committee suggests the current failure to link up provisions across the services has led to more hospital admissions, longer hospital stays and poorer outcomes for patients.

A system in which the costs of care for individuals would be capped at £35,000, was recommended last year by the Dilnot Commission.

The Care Services minister Paul Burstow said the Government would respond to the report and the Dilnot Commission this spring with a White Paper on reforming adult social care.