NEWS RELEASE FROM THE
REGISTERED NURSING HOME ASSOCIATION
Issued 19th December 2000
NURSING HOME CLOSURE 'A DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN' -
CALL FOR INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF WILTSHIRE SOCIAL
SERVICES FINANCES AND FRESH LOOK AT GOVERNMENT
FUNDING FORMULA
News that older people living in the Malmesbury area of Wiltshire will no longer be able to receive nursing home care locally has been described as 'a disaster that was waiting to happen' by the Registered Nursing Home Association, which represents over 1,000 homes nationwide.
From last week-end the last nursing home left in Malmesbury closed its doors, having fallen victim to the 'double whammy' of rising costs and lower levels of social services funding'.
Commented RNHA chief executive Frank Ursell: "What has happened is a tragedy. It means older people in a large swathe of Wiltshire will in future be denied access to locally available nursing home care. The loss of three homes in the past year will almost certainly have a knock on effect on Wiltshire's hospitals, because they will now have fewer options available to them for discharging older patients in need of continuing care."
He added: "In effect, older people in Wiltshire are the innocent pawns in a saga of chronic under-funding, whether by the Government in its financial support for rural counties like Wiltshire or by the county council for the way in which it manages and apportions its resources."
According to the RNHA, this latest closure - blamed by the owners on lack of funding from Wiltshire social services - points to underlying problems in the county council's budgetary management and refutes the argument by its social services director, Dr Ray Jones, that nursing homes are making big profits.
Said Mr Ursell: "In a statement issued last October, Dr Jones claimed that nursing homes in Wiltshire were receiving £500,000 a year more in profits than they would do if they were operating in most other counties. The fact that homes are closing for purely financial reasons does not appear to sustain that argument. In fact, most nursing homes are struggling just to meet their basic costs and many are not even doing that."
He added: "It is a cause of extreme concern to read press reports that Wiltshire social services may need to make savings of more than £6 million on its budget next year. I would urge the county council not to make an already dire situation even worse by diverting funds away from the care of the elderly. It would be intolerable for them to have to bear the brunt of further draconian cutbacks.
"We would like to see an independent audit of the financial management of the social services department to show whether it is being run as efficiently as it could be. We would also be willing to join with the county council in calling for a review of the formula by which the Government allocates national funds to Wiltshire. Someone has clearly got it wrong somewhere. But the people who are really losing out are the older people who will not get the nursing care they need."
A review carried out earlier this year by the Audit Commission and Social Services Inspectorate found that Wiltshire county council has a relatively low level of expenditure on social services. This, says the RNHA, needs to be examined more closely to establish whether it is a shortfall in Government funding at the root of the county's problems or whether they stem from local decisions about priorities.
END
For further information please contact: Frank Ursell, Chief Executive Officer, Registered Nursing Home Association (Tel: 0121-454 2511 or mobile 0385 227000)
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