Care Home Owners Insist £501A Week Not Enough To Cover Costs For OAPs

Scotland is facing a care crisis among the elderly with a number of private businesses threatening to close homes in a dispute over funding.

The problem is particularly serious in Edinburgh which is facing the prospect of hundreds of beds closing because owners claim they cannot afford to continue.

The situation is so critical that one care-home owner has warned that “people will die” because of the disruption closures will cause.

The closures will also mean more bed-blocking in hospitals and elderly people being forced to live far from their families.

Around 38,000 elderly people are cared for in nursing homes, approximately 55 per cent of which are privately owned.

Under an agreement between council representative body Cosla and Scottish Care, which represents private care-homes, owners receive a fixed £471 per place, per week from local councils to look after elderly people unable to afford their own care.

Yesterday it was agreed that figure will rise to £501 next month. In return for the increase, private care-home owners will be expected to sign a new national care contract aimed at improving standards.

Some owners say those extra demands, including more training for staff and bigger rooms in new homes, will drive up costs to the point they will either have to stop accepting those who cannot afford their own care or close down altogether.

Robert Kilgour, owner of Forth Care, which operates three homes in the capital and two in Musselburgh, providing around 150 places for elderly people with dementia and other serious illnesses, said: “We just can’t compete at the moment. The council is looking to introduce more red tape. The money we get at the moment makes it really tight. And all the time property prices are continuing to rise, making it less and less profitable to stay open.

“I’m seriously considering closing all the homes I have in Edinburgh and redeveloping them for residential [use]. I know of several other nursing-home providers who are just as frustrated as me.”

He described it as “galling” that the city council was spending £30 million building four high-specification care homes while many private homes were being driven out of business.

Another person, who owns two care homes in the city, and did not want to be named, said: “I’ve had enough. It simply isn’t viable to continuing operating with the mountain of regulation being heaped on us.”

According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the full cost of a care home place is around £590 a week, leaving some care homes having to charge “top-up” fees.

Brian Masson, who provides around 50 care-home beds in the city, said: “If I was dependent on state-funding, I would have gone out of business a long time ago .

“It is deeply unfortunate but the sad fact is that some people will die as a result of homes closing.”

Lindsay Scott, spokesman for Help The Aged in Scotland, also warned home closures would have “huge” human costs.

“It could well become a crisis and that would be very bad news. The problem has been going on for a number of years with private care homes closing down.

“It’s been getting particularly serious in Edinburgh and the Highland and Islands, but it’s affecting the whole of Scotland.

“The human cost of moving home for very frail, vulnerable people can be huge.”

Ranald Mair, chief executive of Scottish Care, said it was vital that small care homes continued to operate. “Edinburgh has particular issues but the problem is also affecting rural areas, where larger corporations will be less inclined to move into,” he said.

Rory Mair, chief executive of Cosla, said: “Over the last five years an extra £100million has gone into private care homes, but this is the first year we have said that we should see an improvement in quality for that money.”

An Executive spokeswoman said: “We are committed to investing in quality of care for our older people.

“Together, the Executive, Cosla and Scottish Care have agreed new targets that mean increases in care-home fees will now be linked to the quality of services provided and drive up the quality agenda for residents.”

Elderly driven further from families by lack of care places

A growing number of elderly people are being forced to stay in care homes far from their loved ones because of a shortage of available places.

Figures obtained by The Scotsman show that, in Edinburgh, the number of elderly people placed in homes outside the city has increased sharply in the past few years.

Between April 1 2006 and 28 February this year, 328 elderly people were placed in homes outside the capital, compared with 207 in 2002-3. A total of 49 were placed in homes in East Lothian and 89 in West Lothian, with 52 in Fife, 20 in Strathclyde and six in the Highlands and Islands. A further 13 have also been placed in homes in England.

Adrian Lewis, a management consultant working with the Abercorn Nursing Home, said he was aware of a case where an elderly man was moved from hospital to a care home in Fife. “His wife didn’t drive and she wasn’t able to see him for a month. This sort of thing is not out of the norm,” he said.

“Cases like these are extremely sad.”

A spokeswoman for City of Edinburgh Council said: “The department of health and social care is building four new care homes, creating places for 240 people, to address the anticipated future need for care home places.

“This need was assessed as part of a detailed demographic study undertaken by Edinburgh City Council and Lothian NHS Board.

“The homes are of a high standard to reflect the quality of care which residents will need, and which older people in Edinburgh wish to see.”

Hundreds of elderly people in other cities across Scotland are also being placed in homes in other parts of the country. However, in many instances, such moves are seen as preferable by the resident.