NEWS RELEASE FROM THE
REGISTERED NURSING HOME ASSOCIATION
20th March 2003
MORE NURSING HOME CLOSURES:
MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE LIKELY TO PUSH
MANY OVER THE EDGE
More nursing homes will close as a direct result of the latest increase in the national minimum wage. This gloomy forecast was made today by the Registered Nursing Home Association (RNHA).
Yet more closures on top of those which have already occurred over the past three years will plunge the care sector into an even deeper crisis, it warns. An inevitable ‘knock on’ effect is that nursing home places in some parts of the country will become increasingly difficult to find and vulnerable older people will not receive the care they need.
The Association says the 7.1 per cent increase in the national minimum wage stands in stark contrast to the 3 per cent increase being offered by many local authority social services department in the fees they pay to nursing homes to meet the cost of publicly funded patients.
The mismatch is not only unfair in principle, claims the Association, but potentially disastrous in its consequences.
Commented RNHA chief executive officer Frank Ursell: “We have been telling the Government time and time again that too many homes are on the edge of going out of business. But they behave as though everything is the garden is fine. They really need a reality check somewhere along the line.”
He added: “Theoretically, local authorities have been given an extra 6 per cent to invest in care for older people. Few of them are adjusting their nursing home fee rates by as much as this amount. And even if they were, it would still hardly cover the rise in costs which the higher minimum wage is imposing on nursing homes.”
As well as a spate of more nursing home closures as wages and other costs soar far ahead of the fees received from social services, the RNHA warns that the homes which survive this latest financial battering will have little or nothing left in the kitty to meet the cost of implementing higher care standards.
Said Mr Ursell: “The Government’s policies in this area are disjointed to say the least.
On the one hand they introduce new standards that we are expected to meet. On the other hand, they make it virtually impossible for us to find the necessary resources. It looks as though the Government has lost control of the situation.”
END
For further information please contact: Frank Ursell, chief executive officer, Registered Nursing Home Association Tel: 0121-454 2511 or mobile 07785 227000
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