‘Severe’ issues in care sector
All areas: Damning CQC report ‘sadly reflects’ struggles
A Berkshire care body says that a recent damning report from a health service regulator ‘very sadly reflects’ its struggles within the sector.
The Berkshire Care Association (BCA) is the representative body for all Care Quality Commission (CQC) providers in the county.
The CQC released its annual ‘State of Care’ report on Friday, which is the regulator’s assessment of health and social care in England.
It says that the impact of the pandemic has been ‘intensely damaging’ on those who use health services, adding that there has been a ‘strain on carers’, with staff said to be ‘exhausted’ and the workforce ‘depleted’.
An increased need for mental health care has added to pressure on the system, while recruitment and staff retention continue to be ‘severe problems’.
The pandemic has also led to people failing to get appointments with their GPs as practices moved to a remote model.
The CQC says that while this was welcomed by many people, this ‘did not benefit everyone’ with some struggling to secure appointments.
However, despite the pressure of lockdowns, the regulator said that surveys had shown people were ‘often positive’ about the care they had received.
The CQC report arrives a month after the BCA wrote a letter to health chiefs highlighting ‘unprecedented’ difficulties within the social care sector.
Two care sector workers revealed to the Expres that they felt care homes had become ‘prisons for older people’, and described working in the sector as being crushed ‘in a mosh pit at a concert’.
A spokeswoman for the BCA said that it welcomed the report.
“It very sadly reflects our experiences, staffing and services,” she said. “We all try our very best each day to assist those we serve, however the lack of cohesion and unity in the system has left staff leaving in droves.
“We cannot do our jobs properly when the system is set up to fail. We need this sorted permanently.
“We are all a potential service user in waiting, and would all want only what is right and fair - to be treated with respect and enough people to do that for us without stress.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We appreciate the dedication and tireless work of health and social care staff throughout the pandemic.
“We have provided record levels of investment to support them and will provide £36billion over the next three years.
“Thanks to a collective national effort we avoided NHS services becoming overwhelmed. We are working on health and social care reform to ensure we can provide world leading services and are committed to learning lessons from the pandemic with a full public inquiry in the spring.”