Issued 13th December 2001

BLEAK PROSPECTS FOR WORCESTERSHIRE'S OLDER PEOPLE -
COUNTY COUNCIL TO SPEND WELL BELOW EXPECTED LEVEL ON SERVICES

A bleak New Year has been forecast for older people in Worcestershire who need long-term nursing care.

This follows a decision by Worcestershire County Council to spend 40 per cent less on adult social services in 2002/2003 than the figure which, according to government calculations based on the make up and needs of the local population, the council could be expected to spend.

It means that instead of allocating ?53 million next year to the care of adults, including older people in nursing homes, the council intends to set aside only ?31.7 million. This is over ?21 million below the government's standard spending assessment for adult social services in Worcestershire.

Reacting today to the news, the Registered Nursing Home Association (RNHA) said the council's decision was incomprehensible in the face of the level of need for nursing home care in the county. A human tragedy was unfolding, it said, not in some far off, impoverished country but in a shire county widely considered to be one of Britain's pleasantest areas to live in.

Failure by Worcestershire County Council to fund sufficient places for older people in local nursing homes is resulting in mounting closures. Over the past eight weeks alone, three homes have closed their doors in Barnt Green and Clent. A fourth home is due to close before the end of the year.

The total loss of beds in just this short period within Worcestershire amounts to around 130, with nursing home owners warning that there is almost certainly more bad news to come.

As at 31st March 2001, there were around 2,400 nursing home beds for older people in Worcestershire. Around five per cent of that number have recently been lost in just a few weeks.

Commented RNHA chief executive officer, Frank Ursell: "With more and more homes being forced to close because social services are not adequately funding places for older people who need long-term care, homes are going out of business at an even faster rate than ever before.

"By the time anyone in power - locally or nationally - wakes up to this problem, the beds will have been lost. Goodness knows what is going to happen in the future to many of the older residents of Worcestershire who need round the clock nursing and can't afford to pay for it out of their own pockets."

The RNHA wants Worcestershire County Council to review its budget decisions for 2002/2003 and to restore expenditure on adult services to a higher level that is more consistent with the government's 'standing spending assessment'.

"If the council ignores this problem, it won't go away," said Mr Ursell. "We shall increasingly see the sorry spectacle of patients being forced to leave the nursing homes which, to them, are a place of safety and security, a place where trained and dedicated staff look after their health needs twenty four hours a day."

He added: "Older people in Worcestershire have a right to start asking why they are bottom of the political priority list. Is it that politicians think people in their 70s, 80s and 90s don't matter and can be overlooked?"

According to the RNHA, Worcestershire County Council is one of the worst examples in the country of a local authority consistently spending well below the figure it would be expected to spend on adult social services.

"It has been doing this for a number of years," said Mr Ursell. "The gap between what it should be spending and what it actually spends is getting wider all the time. On behalf of the chronically sick old people of Worcestershire, we are appealing to councillors to think again. As we approach 2002, let us see a change of heart. Let us see a new year's resolution by Worcestershire County Council that they intend to switch from being a notoriously miserly local authority into a caring one."

END

For further information and comment, please contact:

Frank Ursell, Chief Executive Officer, Registered Nursing Home Association
Tel: 0121-454 2511 or mobile 07785 227000