Whilst one does not want to raise the subject of money while talking about care, the enormous cost of being self funding makes it unavoidable. According to the manager of the care home where my parent is residing, if the care home is short of staff at night and they have to call a supply carer from elsewhere, usually from a private care company, the cost can be £400 per night. However, the pay that goes to the carer herself is only about £60.00. Therefore, on what is the other £340.00 spent on? The fee from the care home itself goes up every year to the tune of £40.00 per week. In a year that is an increase of £2080. Whilst the company is very good at defending itself to justify these hike in prices - stating their increase in heating costs, insurance, training, meeting the increase in minimum wage of staff, etc. - I only have their word for it. In other words, they can say anything to try and pull the wool over my eyes. At the end of their letter giving notice of increase in fees, which comes before every April, they plead for our understanding and patience and end with the rhetorical question 'I trust these increases are acceptable to you? I've never challenged them because I know they are not offering any choice. My challenge is pointless. I know what their answer would be, something like, "If you are not going to pay our charges, then your parent will know where the door is. He can go. There are plenty of other homes you can move into. If you can find a cheaper one offering the same services as ourselves, then good luck to you. We don't mind kicking you out of one of our care homes, because we know there are plenty of others waiting to come in and take your place."
My summary is this: care homes and caring should not be for profit. There should not be owners and shareholders making a living out of them. They are living well off the backs of people who have had to go to care homes. Going to a care home is not a choice but rather something which is forced upon people when circumstances and events of old age and health have taken over. Counter me if I'm wrong, but I suspect there are people who see running care homes as easy pickings. The people who work in the care home where my parent is are very hard working and caring for their patients. My argument is not with them, but rather with the remote managers and owners who are not local and know little or nothing about the patients and their next of kin. If there are any slip-ups or delays with payment they, without seeking what is the reason, and there could be a bona fide reason for it, like illness with the relative sending the cheques, they come down on me like a ton of bricks. In that way, they show they are not in the business for the caring, but rather for the money. I have no doubt that there are genuine, honest nice people who run care homes. But the ones who run the care home where my dad is are rampant capitalists. I think all care homes should be state run. They should not be running for a loss, but run well and efficiently, and in a loving and homely way. In order to cut out the enormous fees we are having to pay to this private enterprise, I would be willing to increase paying 10 per cent more in taxation. If everybody contributed an increase in what they pay in tax, and look at it as an investment for their old age, I think the state could well afford to run all care homes, or at least most of them. That is how it used to be before, as has the government done in many other fields, sold off sections of the state to the grasping of the private sector. Those are sections of the state which generations of people have paid good money for in their taxes only to see it sold off to the gains of the few. Also think of this: the news has exposed, often years or decades later, bad people running children's homes. In a different sort of bad way, might some care homes for the elderly be run by bad people, who's chief motivation is making huge profits?
My summary is this: care homes and caring should not be for profit. There should not be owners and shareholders making a living out of them. They are living well off the backs of people who have had to go to care homes. Going to a care home is not a choice but rather something which is forced upon people when circumstances and events of old age and health have taken over. Counter me if I'm wrong, but I suspect there are people who see running care homes as easy pickings. The people who work in the care home where my parent is are very hard working and caring for their patients. My argument is not with them, but rather with the remote managers and owners who are not local and know little or nothing about the patients and their next of kin. If there are any slip-ups or delays with payment they, without seeking what is the reason, and there could be a bona fide reason for it, like illness with the relative sending the cheques, they come down on me like a ton of bricks. In that way, they show they are not in the business for the caring, but rather for the money. I have no doubt that there are genuine, honest nice people who run care homes. But the ones who run the care home where my dad is are rampant capitalists. I think all care homes should be state run. They should not be running for a loss, but run well and efficiently, and in a loving and homely way. In order to cut out the enormous fees we are having to pay to this private enterprise, I would be willing to increase paying 10 per cent more in taxation. If everybody contributed an increase in what they pay in tax, and look at it as an investment for their old age, I think the state could well afford to run all care homes, or at least most of them. That is how it used to be before, as has the government done in many other fields, sold off sections of the state to the grasping of the private sector. Those are sections of the state which generations of people have paid good money for in their taxes only to see it sold off to the gains of the few. Also think of this: the news has exposed, often years or decades later, bad people running children's homes. In a different sort of bad way, might some care homes for the elderly be run by bad people, who's chief motivation is making huge profits?