Legal action to protect elderly soars as our social care system lies broken
THREE social care providers a day face legal action as vulnerable patients are “left at the mercy of an unsafe system”.
Standards have slumped to such unacceptable levels the watchdog is punishing or prosecuting record numbers for breaking the law.
The Care Quality Commission has taken criminal or civil enforcement action against care homes and other adult social care providers 2,928 times in three years.
Experts said the unprecedented rate highlighted how England’s creaking care system is buckling under the weight of demand and inadequate funding.
Sally Copley, of Alzheimer’s Society, said: “How much more evidence do we need before we see change? Every day we hear from families who call our dementia helpline in despair because a loved one with dementia needs support, but there is nothing available locally or the only care home they can get into is inadequate.
People with dementia cannot be left at the mercy of this unsafe system any longer.” Figures obtained by the Daily Express show the commission took enforcement action 1,046 times in 2017, 1,160 times in 2018 and 688 times in 2019.
Already in the first two months of this year the regulator has been forced to act 34 times, taking the total to 2,928.
The figure includes 1,561 warning notices, three urgent suspensions, 197 urgent conditions, 11 urgent cancellations, two cautions, 266 fines, 413 conditions and 231 cancellation of registrations.
Managers or providers have been prosecuted on eight occasions.
The figures include residential care, care at home and other supported living services.
Campaigner Baroness Altmann said: “These shocking figures are yet more evidence our country’s social care system is broken.
“It is under unprecedented pressure to deliver care services without adequate resources to pay for good quality care.
“The result is increasing numbers of vulnerable people being left without the care they require to manage their daily life, or facing the risk the care services they receive will not meet their needs. While the Government is committing billions
of pounds to the NHS, social care is still struggling to find money to meet the increasing requirements of our ageing population.
Meagre
“Care and health should be integrated, so taxpayers are meeting the needs of the most vulnerable in society, rather than rationing care so cruelly, or leaving private firms struggling to offer good-quality care on the meagre funding they receive.”
In one case prosecuted by the CQC, Lister House Ltd, which ran Sherrington House Nursing Home in
Bradford, West Yorkshire, was fined £40,000 for failing to provide safe care.
Morag “Ruby” Wardman had been admitted for respite care. But when she got home her son noticed severe skin damage to her knee.
She died a month later of septicaemia and pneumonia caused by the broken sore.
In a separate prosecution, care-home owners Rhoda Ellis and her husband Michael were fined £30,000 after Ted Kendall fell down stairs at Woodthorpe View Care Home in Nottingham, breaking his hip. He was not taken to hospital for 12 hours and he died a few months later aged 94.
Around 70 per cent of people living in care homes are suffering from dementia.
Yet more than 20 per cent of homes specialising in the condition are failing, compared with 13 per cent of those for residents with other conditions.
The crisis has led to renewed calls for the Government to urgently set out its proposals to reform the broken social care system after Boris Johnson promised everyone “dignity in old age”. Meanwhile, campaigners said CCTV should be immediately installed in all communal areas of care homes with an inadequate care inspection rating in an effort to stamp out avoidable abuse and neglect.
Dignity
Caroline Abrahams, of Age UK, said: “Our Prime Minister and his administration need to listen to this growing chorus of disapproval and respond. Older people need action on social care and it cannot come too soon.” Kate Terroni, of the CQC, said: “The small number of criminal enforcement actions clearly shows most people are getting good, safe care – a testament to the hard work of everyone who works within the NHS and social care.”
The Department of Health said: “Putting social care on a sustainable footing, where everyone is treated with dignity and respect, is one of the biggest challenges we face as a society, and we will be bringing forward a plan for social care this year.”