Call for new taskforce to improve elderly care

THE SCOTTISH Government is being urged to set up a taskforce in a bid to improve the care elderly people receive in their own homes, amid concerns staffing levels in some areas are at “crisis point”.

Ranald Mair, chief executive of the umbrella organisation Scottish Care, said there needs to be a move away from short visits by care workers, which he argued deprive the elderly of dignity and put unfair pressure on staff.

He said care providers are “concerned that constraints on public funding are making investment in the workforce and quality of care hard to sustain”.

Mr Mair, who will speak on the issue in front of health secretary Alex Neil at an industry conference in Glasgow today, warned: “Without proper funding, existing problems with staff recruitment and retention — which are already at crisis point in some areas — will worsen.”

Staff provide more than 50,000 hours of care a week, Scottish Care said, but with an ageing population and more people being cared for in their own homes instead of hospitals, this number is likely to rise.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Having worked constructively with the members of the taskforce on the future of residential care for older people in Scotland, we will also engage with those key stakeholders to look at other care services. Scottish Care will be a vital contributor to that work.”

A spokesman for local government body Cosla said it remains to be convinced that a taskforce is needed.