Elderly Care Home Crisis

Eloethan I think we are not outraged because we don't know what is happening until we are actually in the position of having a relative in a care home .

I worked for years running a night shift at the weekend in various care homes, back in the nineties and in those days the owners were ripping people off with extortionate fees. Behind the scenes the old people were being fed the cheapest own brand food from places like Kwik Save.

One home owner I knew of went to the car show in London and ordered the latest Jag and proudly displayed it in front of his home. The man I worked for said 'he's giving us all a bad name', so I can see why there have been cuts, but obviously it has gone too far.

Just heard that my mother- in-law's care home is to be closed, and she will have to be moved to another one, her fourth in two years.

Governments set policies that electors will agree to. Because there is no information in the public domain that shows how care home costs breakdown, and because most people who have self-funding relatives in care homes constantly complain about how expensive they are, they do nothing. Nobody complains about the abysmally low rates local authorities pay for those incare. Rates that make it necessary for care homes to cut corners and take risks with low carer numbers and unsuitable staff.

If this is to change it is those most involved, the families of those in care, who must protest and while they are prepared to be complicit in driving care costs down, nothing will be done.

The government prioritises how the money they hold is spent and it has decided that a 40% cut in funding to local councils is OK. On top of the around 60% cost of staffing and other expenses, private homes need to make a profit and so if investors feel their profit is not sufficient and they can make more money elsewhere, they will sell up. It could be argued that if local authorities ran the majority of the care homes, there would not be this cost element.

I think I read that something like one in ten elderly people enters care at some stage in their lives, which means that a much greater majority do not.

Apart from my belief that in a civilized society elderly people should receive the help they need - whether it be from within their own homes or in a residential setting - there is also a cost involved in not providing these services. It is one of the contributory reasons for elderly people being admitted to hospital in the first place, and then not being discharged because there is nowhere safe for them to go.

Residential elderly care is very labour-intensive and expensive but what is more important than the care of our citizens? (I think the same applies to nursery care for our children and residential care or for people with severe learning disabilities.) It is an issue that will only become worse as fewer and fewer people own their own homes and thus have less money to contribute towards their residential care costs.

The NHS is falling apart at the seams because of all these pressures and yet it is not being acknowledged that local authority cuts are one of the main reasons for the currrent chaotic situation.

It is a matter of setting priorities and it seems this government's priority has been to spend money on ideological projects such as the top-down re-organisation of the NHS and the free schools and academisation programme.

I think they get away with it because most members of the public do not think rationally on the subject, only emotionally. They deplore the closure of homes and want them improved etc etc, but at the same time complain bitterly about how outrageously expensive care home fees are.

Failing care homes are mainly those taking in residents funded by social services departments, most of whom will pay less than £100 a day for the care of the elderly. That sounds a lot, but I have just returned from a short coach tour with a group I belong to. We stayed, out of season, in a seaside hotel, so the rate our organiser got for 35 people staying for three days was, as they say, competitive. It was £125 a night for bed, breakfast and evening meal. It was a 3 star hotel. Our room was en-suite, clean, warm and adequately furnished, but very small. Food again while very pleasant was clearly portion controlled and bought in ready prepared from catering wholesalers.

Now think what care homes provide; staff to get residents up, wash and dress people who suffer from dementia and other ills who may also be incontinent, provide continuing supervision and care all day and be on call all night. Their laundry must be done, very high hygene levels maintained at all times. Some residents need feeding, room temperatures need to be kept to a far higher level than in a normal home, Management and staff supervision at a far higher level than required in any hotel is also necessary.

If people would think rationally about how much good care provided by properly paid trained staff actually costs, instead of expecting to get a high level of care for price less than the cost of an overnight stay in an out of season hotel and complaining if they don't, they will then be prepared to pay the proper price for the care their loved one receives and campaign for social services to pay an adequate rate to care providers.