Care Homes Again

October

24

0 comments

If you look at our comments section, you’ll see that we’ve had a couple of disquieting comments about care homes for the elderly.

We’ve also had a long email from another concerned person. It’s a bit too long to quote here, but this is an extract:

Its obvious to all of us that Essex County Council got shot of the homes quick to a provider who could not afford to run these places and would force through dramatic changes. A lot of the staff have over 20 years service with Essex and are now finding themselves worrying as to how they are going to pay their mortgages and everyday living bills

I used to recommend homes to people but find myself encouraging families not to even look as their loved ones would not be properly cared for. Keep them at home if you can and get social services to put in a care package. At least you would know they are being looked after and cared for, and not trying to understand care staff who can barely talk English.

Thanks Essex County Council you really do a good job at penny pinching and condemning the elderly to second class citizens.

Meanwhile, the GMB Union hit out on their website: (which is worth looking at for a couple of lines we’ve not included)

Lord Hanningfield recently spoke about Essex County Council’s position on care for the elderly, “A leader doesn’t know anything about contracts. I’ve been in local government a long time and I’ve never had to worry about contracts.

This company was approved by central government. It’s the national regulatory body’s fault – not Essex’s. I don’t know anything about Excelcare”.

Mick Ainsley, GMB Organiser responded to this by saying, “Cllr Lord Hanningfield also recently claimed that GMB’s campaigning for care homes to be taken back into Council control is a dispute involving a small number of people with their own agenda.

The GMB’s agenda is clear, it about the promises made by Essex County Council and Cllr Hanningfield to Essex care home residents relating to their standard of care and to Essex care home staff over their TUPE Transfer to from Essex County Council to Excelcare Ltd.

GMB is pleased Cllr Hanningfied is concerned about the welfare of these people and wants an improvement in standards. However, we would appreciate an explanation on how this will be achieved when the amount of money Essex County Council contributes to the care homes has been reduced. The amount contributed per person per week has reduced from ?650-700 to ?350-400 since Excelcare took control. This is clearly a cost cutting exercise by Essex County Council and contradicts the promises made by Cllr Hanningfield”.

It’s possible that Lord Hanningfield is being unfairly quoted by the GMB. We’ve love him to contact us to set the record straight.

About the author, admin

{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}
>