24-HR CARE CONFUSION

A CARE home was closed in Runcorn recently following an inspection.

This is not the first care home in the borough to be closed in recent years because the care provided has been judged to be substandard.

I, for one, would not take these closures to be representative of care homes in general.

Most of them, I’m sure, provide comfort for the elderly and infirm and they provide a vital service.

However, I think it is a complete misconception that care homes can provide ‘24-hour care’ as seems to be advertised by the medical profession.

It is a practical impossibility, not only for care homes but hospitals also.

There was a tragic case recently of an elderly man who had a fall in his room which subsequently led to his death.

The son of the elderly man who died was heartbroken.

Not just because of his father’s death but that it was not his decision to put his father into his care home.

That decision was taken by his sister who had not visited their father for 18 months but who had power of attorney.

It was the son who had been looking after his father at a bungalow.