People will be moved from hospitals to care homes..

[StarInTheHeavens]

Where will they find all these spare care home places? And more than that, the care sector is already underpaid and under-staffed. Is this plan really going to work?

I’ve recently been trying to move someone to a card home and there is 1-2 places coming up each week within 20 miles of me. Even allowing for moving people to anywhere with space, there isn’t the spaces.

There are care homes here with the staff and space.

My father is in one. It’s a 60 bed home with only 9 residents as they will not accept the council funding. They charge £1,400 a week, the council pay £900 for a place.

I was speaking to the manager about it when he moved there from the council funded place he was in for respite after hospital while we found somewhere for him as he had saving so had to pay himself.

So the councils are just going to have to stump up more, or the owners of private care homes will have to be forced to take them for less.

If the government are going in effect guarantee customers for the worst homes, that barely make CQC standards. I imagine they will crowd in more beds.

I can only assume the nhs will pay more than the local council can afford for care home spaces, using them as convalescent homes. If they can fund the nhs enough to pay the market rate for a care home bed then why can’t they fund social care enough to be able to pay properly? Temporary sticking plaster - but at least they’ve recognised the problem is care provision.

Yes, the majority of care homes where I am are private and the going rate is £1,300 - £1,400 a week. There are lots of them to chose from.

But only a few where they are cheaper. I was clueless when my father was in hospital, I had no idea. We were told he would get 6 weeks respite paid for - we couldn’t see him as the place was shut for covid outbreaks. When we did, he was covered in bruises and had lost stones in weight. We had him out of there that day and the investigation is ongoing.

I don’t think people realise that not all care homes are equal.

There definitely isn't space in my area. We tried for 2 months to get a place for my grandmother after she was ready to be discharged, my mum visited over 20 homes. We finally got a call back about a place miles away.. during my grandmothers funeral. She deteriorated and died whilst 'bedblocking'.

This is what the plan already should be. Lots of old people are bed blocking where they can’t go home. It is not happening because there are no care homes spaces, so if this is the government plan it’s cobblers.

I'm a care home manager. I've got one room free at the moment. But I've got no staff. Not Enough to adequately cover the rest of my home most of the time. It's not the bed space that is necessarily the issue. It's the severe lack of trained, or even untrained staff, at this point. They could give me 50k today and I still wouldn't be able to magic up a staff team overnight.

As usual it's 'lump the problem over to social care to protect the NHS' and I'm absolutely fed up with it.

It the same as any local authority funding.

The rate they will pay for care homes is under the rate that private homes charge.

If you are renting a house and are claiming benefits, the local authority cap is is under the value that private landlords charge.

It’s a shit system and people suffer at both ends.

My fathers money will run out soon and I am terrified he will have to move to a council funded home like the one he was abused in. I can’t “top up” £2k a month for him to stay where he is, it’s more than I earn.

And as for staff, why would you work in a care home when you get better pay and conditions in a supermarket or cleaning job?

The whole system is fucked.

this categorically won't work

are they all stupid or do they just think we are all stupid?

The NHS ALREADY block books spaces in care homes. The spaces are all full and there's no staff available to create more spaces.

People in the community are already ending up in hospital because they can't get placed in care homes because there aren't any spaces in care homes and it's not safe for them to stay at home.

the more spaces the NHS 'steal' from the community the more people will end up in hospital and hospital admission will eventually become the only route into a care home.

we are governed by muppets. Which is an insult to muppets.

Round where I am homes have NHS beds already and have for years.It can involve unsafe discharge from hospital on a Friday eve wuth wrong/ no meds and a crap discharge summary..if one at all. Many of these people require Nursing care. They need to be temporarly registered with a GP. There are not enough carers/ Nurses to support safely.

Just pointing out that council funded care homes are down to peanuts because of central government repeatedly slashing their budgets. Not through choice.