NHS needs funding not crazy schemes
It is beyond belief that local councils and care facilities are starved of cash while there’s a proposal to reward untrained and unskilled strangers with thousands of pounds to take over the mantle of care.
It would be open to unscrupulous agencies and people jumping in to make a quick profit, with no concern for their patients in need of compassionate daily care.
What a kick in the teeth for struggling family members and dedicated volunteers who for years have given their lives to look after vulnerable and needy people and have been totally ignored in their attempts to get any financial help, while striving daily to keep body and soul together.
These plans were obviously not thought through. Instead, funds and proper backing should be made available to existing carers. Neil Atherton, St Helens, Merseyside
# Surely it’s time to build some small, old-fashioned convalescent homes, paid for by the NHS? A reasonable fee could be asked for this service, and volunteers could cook meals, and supply drinks and conversation, working alongside staff with basic qualifications. I’m sure there are many nurses who have left the NHS who could manage a small unit of discharged hospital patients until they are able to care for themselves at home. Marilyn Spires Colchester Essex
# Was this latest scheme – for people to be paid £1,000 a month to let out their spare room to patients leaving hospital who need care – some kind of sick joke?
Just how sensible would it be to send vulnerable people into private residences to be cared for by people who have no medical experience?
Let patients go into care homes and pay the carers properly. Mick Streets, Chesterfield, Derbys
# Wouldn’t it be interesting if someone came up with a novel idea to solve the bed-blocking crisis?
The Government could furnish local government with funds so they could provide old folk’s homes and convalescing facilities as they once did before the privateers emerged and austerity evolved. Noel Beresford, Bolsover, Derbys
# People should realise that the Tories do not want the financial burden of the NHS.
They would like the NHS to die off but don’t want to be seen as its killer, so they underfund it and wait for the failure to happen. Then they will tell us we must have medical insurance, just as in the USA. We must not let this happen to this great institution. P Rayner, Cambridge
# Have people never heard of adult fostering, or the Shared Lives scheme? These have been going on for years in our area and the proposed hospital to spare room trial was just an extension of that.
At one time there were convalescent homes where patients could recover in comfort. Now long gone, but sadly missed, the spare room idea could be a excellent alternative.
As for being looked after by strangers, surely people have been to A&E and undressed in front of doctors and nurses they have never met? Barbara Marshall, via email