Issued 27th March 2001

'GOVERNMENT RISKS PERPETUATING AGEISM':
RNHA RESPONSE TO NATIONAL SERVICE FRAMEWORK
FOR OLDER PEOPLE

Nursing homes have responded to today's publication of the National Service Framework for Older People by asking whether the Government itself risks perpetuating the very ageism in health care that it professes to want to eradicate.

The Registered Nursing Home Association said it was extremely disappointed that the Government had left funding for the 200,000 people in long-term nursing care at an uneconomic level. This, the RNHA claims, will prevent standards of care from rising in tune with the rhetoric of Government policy. It will also keep many of the staff caring for the country's most vulnerable elderly on some of the country's lowest wages.

Said RNHA chief executive officer Frank Ursell: "It is tragic that a major policy document purporting to be about the health and welfare of older people should ignore this fundamental issue."

From April 2001, nursing homes looking after State-funded patients will be expected to provide 24-hour care, including accommodation, food and staffing, for ?336 a week or ?48 a day. As the RNHA points out, this is about the equivalent of a hotel at the 'budget' end of the market, whereas nursing homes have to provide health care round the clock and employ qualified nursing staff.

By comparison, an NHS hospital bed for an older person is likely to cost around ?1,000 a week. A local authority run residential care home, with no round the clock nursing care to provide, will cost an average of ?400 a week or more.

Added Mr Ursell: "Unfortunately, the policy of this Government appears to be that anyone in need of long-term nursing home in a residential setting will have to be looked after on the cheap. If it goes on like this, standards will fall and many more nursing homes will close."

The RNHA says the new National Service Framework for Older People has focused mainly on NHS services for the 60,000 or so people in acute hospitals, with relatively little attention being paid to the 200,000 older people in nursing homes and an even higher number in residential care homes.

"In an era of so-called partnership, we would have expected to hear more about the half a million people currently looked after in the independent and voluntary sectors," said Mr Ursell. "Given that this document has been in preparation for so long, we expected it to be more comprehensive.
Older people in this country cannot be reassured that the battle against ageism is won."

END

For further information please contact: Frank Ursell, Chief Executive Officer, RNHA
Tel: 07785 227000 (mobile), 0121-454 2511 (office) or 0121-445 1861 (home)