Campaigner slams region’s ‘unfair’ care home costs

ELDERLY people in the Highlands are paying thousands of pounds more to live in local authority care homes than in other parts of Scotland.

Figures show that pensioners staying in residential homes run by the Highland Council pay an average of £735 per week – £38,220 annually.

It is the fifth most expensive total in Scotland. Residents in council homes in Shetland pay the most at £923 per week while OAPs in Orkney have to stump up £902.

However, in Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and West Lothian residents only pay £315, which works out at £16,380 a year – less than half the amount Highland residents are charged.

Outraged campaigner John Morrison said he is disgusted “self-funding” pensioners have to pay more than double the amount than other areas.

Self-funding OAPs have to pay for their own care if they have property, assets or savings worth more than £23,500, although the Scottish Government provides a weekly £159 grant.

The council said the high charges are down to the contrasting sizes of its portfolio of homes and higher staff wages.

However, Mr Morrison, a committee member of the Highland Senior Citizens Network, said the sky-high totals, obtained through freedom of information requests, show elderly care fees are an unfair “postcode lottery”.

The pressure group is to write to government health secretary Nicola Sturgeon and Highland MSPs asking them to investigate the charges.

“It is apparent that the elderly of the Highlands suffer from the additional cost of living due to the north/south divide,” Mr Morrison said.

“I find it incredible that it costs an elderly self-funding resident in a council-run home in the Highlands some £420 per week and £21,840 more per year than for the equivalent care provided in homes run by four south-of-Scotland rural local authorities.”

Mr Morrison, of Beauly, a 75-year-old former policeman, added the issue would be raised with council officials at a meeting in Inverness on Monday.

Highlands and Islands Conservative MSP Mary Scanlon also called on the authority to examine the charges.

Mrs Scanlon said it can cost up to 80 per cent more per patient to be placed in a council home than a facility in the private or voluntary sector, despite both sectors providing similar standards of care.

“Since the Scottish Parliament was set up in 1999 there has been a significant difference between what councils pay to run council homes and how much they pay the independent sector,” she said.

“It is not fair, it is not just. People are just going to go through their savings much quicker. I have been raising this issue since 1999 and very little has been done about it.

“I would hope that the Highland Council would be examining their care home charges. For three people cared for in a council home, for the same money five people could be cared for in the independent sector.”

The MSP said it will be interesting to see whether NHS Highland – which takes over the running of council homes on April 1– would cut the charges.

Councillor Margaret Davidson, chairwoman of the local authority’s housing and social work committee, said smaller care units could be costly and pointed out it is an average charge.

“We run smaller units with four or 10 beds up to 30-odd beds,” she said. “But we still need to have a manager for four beds. We also have a different staff structure, staff get paid a bit higher than the private sector.

“We may have a £1000-a-week bed for the smaller units but in some of the bigger care homes our costs are not that far away from the private sector, but by law we can’t undercut them.”

The Aird and Loch Ness councillor added she would “relish” talks with Mr Morrison.