‘A CARE disaster of epic proportions looms’ as care for the elderly and disabled reaches such a crisis that the future of social care is under threat, unions warned yesterday.
Council homes for the elderly have been all but shut down and private companies now run social care for profit. Care workers are being asked to visit more and more disabled and elderly people in a single day, with less and less time for each visit.
As a result, elderly people have been left lying in their own urine as the carer only has time to either cook a meal for them, take them to the toilet or help them shower, but not enough time to do all three.
A letter was submitted to prime minister May by three parliamentary committee chairs urging action on health and social care funding. Unison shop steward, Roger Hutt, representing Living Ambitions care workers (formally Care UK workers) told News Line: ‘I have done this job 36 years. I love my job. I have literally for the last three days just been working and sleeping.
‘I work with people with learning disabilities. The continuity of care that we once had is gone. It is a transient work force, so carers do not get to know their service users. People that work in home support, their providers are saying to them “you can shower them, you can cook them a meal but you have not time to do it all.”
‘You are taking away people’s dignity. We are hearing horror stories private providers are not being given essential support. That is somebody’s parents ultimately. When we were working for Care UK, we went out on strike for 90 days against attacks on our terms and conditions. Undoubtedly all these private companies should be taken back in-house.’
Rehana Azam, GMB National Secretary, said: ‘Health and social care funding is arguably the most pressing issue facing our country – with a crisis of epic proportions looming in the very near future. GMB has been warning the government for years about the vast social care funding black hole – but they wouldn’t listen.’
Dr Mark Porter, BMA chair of council, said: ‘Politicians from all sides must come together to agree a long-term solution to this crisis. Failures within the social care system have a considerable knock-on effect on an already stretched and underfunded NHS.
‘To look after patients well, doctors need social care to be well-funded and adequately staffed. When social care doesn’t function, patients experience delays in moving from hospital to appropriate social care settings. This damages patient care and places a significant financial strain on the NHS. Improved integration between health and social care services would help patients move from hospital to social care more easily.
‘The current crunch in health and social care is a direct result of years of inadequate funding and politicians of all parties failing to take a long-term view on what needs to happen.’
The Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, Cllr Izzi Seccombe, said: ‘It is absolutely vital that local government leaders, who are responsible for social care in their local community, are part of that review. This is imperative to get a long-term, sustainable solution to the social care crisis that the most vulnerable people in our society deserve.’
