NEWS RELEASE FROM THE
REGISTERED NURSING HOME ASSOCIATION
Issued 25th February 2005
GOVERNMENT RISKS ACCUSATIONS OF HYPOCRISY
IF NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE NOT MATCHED BY
INCREASED RESOURCES FOR CARE SECTOR
Today’s announcement by the Prime Minister of two further increases in the national minimum wage over the next year has raised serious concerns among nursing homes that there will be no equivalent increase in Government and local authority resources for publicly funded patients.
Responding to Tony Blair’s statement at his press conference this morning that the minimum hourly rate will rise to £5.05 in October and £5.35 next year, the Registered Nursing Home Association (RNHA) said it hoped the Government was not just playing pre-election politics and that it would match the increases in wages with similar increases in the amount of money needed to pay for vital public services such as nursing care.
Following the Government’s decision, nursing homes face an 8% enforced increase in their wage bills when the two-stage rise in the hourly rate has been implemented. Other increases in operating costs will also have to be met.
Yet, according to the RNHA, it is unlikely on the evidence available that the payments which nursing homes receive from social services departments to provide care will rise by the same figure during 2005/06.
Commented RNHA chief executive officer Frank Ursell: “If the Government simply tells nursing homes that they must pay their staff a particular rate, but then fails to increase the amount which nursing homes receive for providing 24-hour care to patients whose costs have to be met by the State, it would smack of cynical hypocrisy.”
He added: “We can only hope that the Government intends to honour its obligations to the older people who need nursing home care by ensuring that the impact of the national minimum wage rise is met in full. Unfortunately, past experience suggests that the Government is happy to push up the costs of care but remains slow to help care providers cope with the consequences.”
Mr Ursell also highlighted the problems facing nursing homes which are striving to meet higher standards required by the Government whilst having their staffing costs artificially inflated by Government action.
“We, in the independent care sector want to provide good quality care,” he said, “but our task is made more difficult if the Government is unfair in its treatment of services for older people. It would be somewhat hypocritical of politicians to insist on standards on the one hand but to deny us the means to achieve those standards on the other.”
END
For further information and comment please contact:
Frank Ursell, Chief Executive Officer, RNHA
Tel: 07785 227000 (mobile), 0121-454 2511 (office)
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