NEWS RELEASE FROM THE
REGISTERED NURSING HOME ASSOCIATION
Issued 30th July 2003
THINGS CAN ONLY GET WORSE FOR ELDERLY CARE, RNHA WARNS THE GOVERNMENT: LATEST LAING & BUISSON STATISTICS SHOW CONTINUING CARE HOME CLOSURES
The Government is still in a state of denial about the problems faced by elderly care providers in the independent sector, according to the Registered Nursing Home Association (RNHA).
Responding to the latest statistics being released by Laing & Buisson, which show a net loss of 11,800 places in independent care homes in the 15 months up to April this year, the RNHA said it provided further proof that Government policies are not working.
Said RNHA chief executive officer Frank Ursell: “We don’t know how many more warnings this Government needs before it wakes up to the reality that the foundations of elderly care are being eroded. We need urgent action from the Health Secretary to stabilise the finances of the sector, halt the decline in places and safeguard the welfare of Britain’s most vulnerable older people.”
He added: “The next 12 months threaten to be an even more testing time for care homes. We have already faced a 20 per cent increase in registration fees and a 141 per cent increase in Criminal Records Bureau fees. Just down the line in October we will have a 7.1 per increase in the national minimum wage to contend with. Yet most homes have been lucky to get just a 3 per cent increase in the fees paid by local authorities. The sums just don’t add up. Further closures are inevitable.”
The RNHA points to the failure of a Government initiative from 2001 in which local authorities were encouraged to work with the independent sector to ensure continuity of care. This, claims the RNHA, has scarcely happened at all in practice and, as a result, has created a further loss of confidence among independent operators that the Government is serious about preserving the care home sector.
An accelerating rate of closures is predicted by the RNHA in those parts of the UK where the overheads of running care homes are highest, including the Home Counties and the south west.
Said Mr Ursell: “We in the RNHA appeal to the new Secretary of State for Health to put elderly care at the top of his personal agenda. He may not yet realise that we are in the middle of a crisis but I can assure him that we are right in the thick of it and, with current Government strategies, things can only get worse.”
END
For further information please contact:
Frank Ursell, Chief Executive Officer, Registered Nursing Home Association
(Tel: 07785 227000 mobile or 0121-454 2511 office or 0121-445 1861 home)
Notes to editors:
1. The above news release is in response to a Laing & Buisson report, Care of Elderly People Market Survey 2003.
2. In 2001, a Government strategic planning group published a report, Building Capacity and Partnership in Care, which encouraged local authorities to engage with the independent and voluntary care sectors in planning the future delivery of long-term care to meet the needs of vulnerable older people and others with special needs.
3. The Registered Nursing Home Association is the largest body representing the UK’s independent nursing homes. It has been campaigning to persuade the Government and local authorities to provide an adequate level of resources to meet the cost of caring for publicly funded patients.
4. Estimates in report published by the Rowntree Foundation, based on research conducted by Laing & Buisson, suggest that most local authorities would need to increase the fees they pay nursing homes for publicly funded patients by between £80 and £100 per week.
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