NEWS RELEASE FROM THE
REGISTERED NURSING HOME ASSOCIATION IN WALES
FUNDING 'HOLE' COULD BE FILLED IF
SOCIAL SERVICES WERE NOT SO WASTEFUL:
NURSING HOMES CALL FOR RETHINK ON THE WAY CARE IS PROVIDED
Issued 26th March 2002
The 'gaping hole' in the funding of care for older people in Wales could be filled overnight if local authority-run homes were not so vastly more expensive than those in the independent sector.
The claim came today from the Registered Nursing Home Association in Wales, which says residential care homes operated by social services departments are costing tax payers £150 a week more than private care homes looking after publicly funded patients.
While the going rate for private homes is around £230 a week per resident, it costs £380 a week or more to keep an older person in a local authority home.
Independent nursing homes, where 24-hour nursing care is provided by qualified staff, currently receive less per patient per week in fees from social services than local authorities themselves spend on their own care homes, where residents are not so highly dependent.
Mr Anthony Ramsey-Williams, RNHA chairman in Wales, commented: "If the local authorities cut their own costs and management overheads, they would release enough resources into the care system for private nursing and residential care homes to be able to provide a much better quality of service at a lower cost."
He added: "There is an enormous waste of public money going on at present, whilst nursing homes are being told that they cannot expect any increase in fees for over a year. This is grossly unfair and unreasonable. We need a rethink of the way care is provided."
END
For further information please contact:
Anthony Ramsey-Williams, chairman of the RNHA in Wales
Tel: 01792 235134
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