Now our duty is to build care homes fit for heroes
UP AND down the land yesterday there were appropriately socially distanced events held to pay tribute to the generation of Britons that defeated Nazi Germany. While most members of what has been called “the greatest generation” are no longer with us, thousands thankfully still are. Given that we have just passed the 75th anniversary of VE Day, it follows that those who played an active role in the war effort are above the age of 90 now.
A fortunate few would still brand themselves “as fit as a fiddle”, but many have reached the stage where they must live out their twilight years in care homes.
How shaming then for all the generations that have followed to confront the fact that right now these institutions form the frontline for coronavirus fatalities, with thousands of deaths already confirmed and thousands more undoubtedly to follow.
While NHS staff have sometimes struggled to obtain appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), they have at least had the weight of an enormous institution working to secure them supplies and massive hospital-based expertise on tap to instruct them on how to minimise the risk of spreading or contracting the infection.
CARE home staff, generally less well trained and less well paid, have been further back in the queue for PPE and often have not had such institutional knowledge to call upon given the preponderance of small, privately-run facilities.
The unsurprising result has been the disease running rife through many of the homes. Hundreds of care home workers have suffered symptoms. But the prime victims have been the frail and vulnerable residents.
The unique level of vulnerability of the very elderly to this disease is underlined by the fact that even the Royal Hospital, Chelsea – home to the famous Chelsea Pensioners and with a strong claim to being the best old people’s home in the world – has been badly hit. It has announced that 58 of its approximately 300 resident old soldiers have had the disease and recovered, but that nine have tragically been killed by it.
As is no doubt true of the Royal Hospital, many care homes cannot be blamed at all for being unable to shield their residents from the virus, a novel disease about which so much remains unknown.
But there is no denying that the sector in general is in a poor state: understaffed, with far too many sub-standard homes and a minority among private owners primarily motivated by the idea of making big profits by minimising costs rather than delivering the best care. The funding model is a lottery too, with the elderly having to pay full fees if they have assets of more than £23,250, meaning they are compelled to sell off much-loved family homes to foot the bill if unfortunate enough to need residential care.
Successive governments have found ways to ignore the call of the Dilnot Commission in 2011 for a more generous deal, paid for by a new tax to “pool risk”.
On becoming Prime Minister, Boris Johnson pledged to bring forward a comprehensive policy to modernise and upgrade the system. In December’s election he hinted that he had a readyto-go rescue plan. As yet there is no sign of it.
Of course, he has been rather busy since then. But Mr Johnson must know that an event as huge and traumatic as coronavirus is likely to change the political landscape fundamentally. The British people will surely want to seize this moment to end the chaotic state of social care, just as only two months after VE Day that war-time generation voted in a government determined to transform healthcare provision.
The National Health Service was what emerged after 1945.A National Care Service that could guarantee a decent care home place to all who need it would be a fitting tribute to the memory of those killed by this terrible disease.
MANY dyed-in-thewool Tories may think that sounds like a rather socialist idea and it would certainly involve more state funding – perhaps partly financed by a new National Insurance surcharge payable over a certain age. But it needn’t mean scrapping the best existing private provision.
The Prime Minister has shown himself unafraid of big infrastructure ideas. In his case that usually means new transport infrastructure.
But, as we contemplate whether we have truly fulfilled our obligations to our remaining heroes of the Second World War, it is a big social infrastructure project that Britain is crying out for most of all.
‘Place in a home for all who need it would honour Covid-19 victims’