Comments on: A Lone Carer

By: Beryl Mason

Beryl Mason — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:57:01 +0000

The way the NHS is working (around here, anyway) suggests that no consideration is given to the effect on carers and carees of having to travel hither and yon to get any sort of service.
So long as their time is not taken, it seems unimportant that e.g. I have to allow a half-hour each way for a journey of only 2 miles, because Dad has to go in a wheelchair taxi.
Also, every organisation seems to be trying to shift their costs to someone else. The NHS has been shifting costs of caring for elderly people onto Social Services or families whenever they can. As a minor example, for the last two years the District Nurse has visited to give Dad and I our flu jabs. Not this year – we have to spend half an hour each way and a £15 taxi fare to go to the surgery. Only those being regularly visited by District Nurses or in Nursing Homes will not be expected to go to the surgery. There must be many people who just will not get their flu jab – what will be the cost in ill-health/treatment for the proportion who will get flu? We have also lost the guarantee that patients over 75 would get at least one home visit from a doctor every year – having not seen a doctor for at least 2 years, I had to take Dad (disabled and diabetic) to the surgery to have his medication reviewed properly instead of by a phone call.
The proliferation of firms selling wheelchairs and other equipment which was hitherto provided by the NHS is another area of costs being shifted.
How are we to care for disabled people of any age at home, if the health services are cutting the support they give us?

By: Tessa Harding

Tessa Harding — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 10:03:47 +0000

I have two comments.
If we all agree that people are better off in their own homes, then what help can the state offer to enable them to stay there? How does the cost of round the clock live in care compare with the cost of a care home? In my experience it is comparable, but my experience is not very wide, and of course there remains the cost of keeping the home going, on top of the cost of care. Nonetheless, it would seem essential that the state provides some regular relief for the carer and at least shares the 24 hours a day 7 days a week work involved.
My second point is about medical care. The person I care for has a lot of medical attention, and her GP is exccellent, but it is all about bits of her – her hearing, her eyes, her digestive system, her legs etc etc etc. We schlep around from appointment to appointment, exhausting for her and time consuming for everybody. It is up to us to make an appointment if something seems to be wrong. There must be a way of doing this better and in a more co-ordinated fashion. I wonder if there is a need for someone like a specialist nurse to have a proactive role in monitoring the health of those older people who have multiple conditions.

By: malcolm harrison

malcolm harrison — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:07:29 +0000

I agree that care in most nursing homes is not as individualised or as effective as that provided by a caring relative at home. sometimes the care at home is done for the wrong reasons but very rarely, not as often as poor care is delivered in care homes.
now that we have closed most NHS and council care and rehabilitation homes it is the private sector that provides this care. their primary remit is profit, and as the NHS leads the way to show, the bigger a home the lower the cost per person and the more chance of making a profit. we cant blame the private sector for this, we ask the same from our pension funds and shares. if we want state provision we will have to pay. it takes a long time to turn round the NHS and social services and at present they are being pushed by our government to use the private sector.
there are no easy answers.

By: Penny Bussey

Penny Bussey — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 18:22:16 +0000

As a dementia care `specialist and past home manager I entirely agree with you that people with dementia are nearly always better off in their own home with people they love caring for them. I am sure that it is possible to develop a model of community care, to provide suport for home carers, based on small geographical areas served by round the clock ‘patch’ teams. Too much money is currently being spent on hotel style residential homes which are not home-like. These need very expensive teams to manage them, which is part of the reason for the escalating costs of care for older people.