NEWS RELEASE FROM THE
REGISTERED NURSING HOME ASSOCIATION
Issued 8th December 2004
‘SHAMEFUL’ COMMENTS BY HEALTH MINISTER
BETRAY PREJUDICE AGAINST CARE HOMES
Comments made yesterday in the House of Commons by junior health minister Dr Stephen Ladyman about older people being ‘banged up’ in care homes have been condemned as ‘shameful’ by the Registered Nursing Home Association (RNHA).
The RNHA is calling on the minister to apologise for his statement, which the association describes as a careless use of words which may have betrayed the government’s underlying prejudice against the care home sector.
Said RNHA chief executive officer Frank Ursell: “It is very unfortunate that Dr Ladyman should use such an inflammatory expression as ‘banged up’ to describe what it means for a vulnerable older person to be admitted into a care home. We think that it is a slur on the thousands of nurses and care assistants who look after the elderly. It must also have caused a great deal of unnecessary anxiety to any older person about to enter a care home.”
The RNHA is also taking issue with Dr Ladyman’s comments in Parliament yesterday about funding, in which he claimed that because local authorities’ adult social services departments had seen a 30 per cent real terms increase in government support since 1997, they now had enough money to pay the market rate for care homes placements
“These rises have been in theory only,” said Mr Ursell. “In practice, a lot of the money has been siphoned off into other areas of expenditure. As a result, older people have not been the beneficiaries and the amount of money available to pay for care home placements is below the rate that would buy you bed and breakfast in a cheap hotel.”
END
Notes to editors:
1. Dr Ladyman’s remarks about care homes were made in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 7th December 2004 in response to oral questions from Mr Michael Wills, MP and Mr Peter Luff, MP (see Hansard column 1032 for Tuesday, 7th December).
2. The RNHA represents around 1,200 nursing homes across the UK.
For further information and comment, please contact:
Frank Ursell, Chief Executive Officer, Registered Nursing Home Association
Tel: mobile 07785 227000 at any time or 0121-454 2511 (office)
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