Care preparedness issues exposed by virus

Sir, – Maaike Cook makes a reasonable point (More than NHS to thank, Courier, July 6), in that home carers and the care sector in general are the “Cinderellas of health care”.

It has taken this virus outbreak to expose that care homes, Care in the Community providers and others were not set up to cope with this level of infection.

This in my view is a typical failing of a profit driven industry, where they plan for the 80% events and struggle with the 20%.

It is not unusual to health care, it happens in other business sectors, as we see today.

From recollection Health Secretary Jeane Freeman frequently advised that ‘top-up’ support of PPE in April and critical care trained staff were made available and the delivery challenges overcome.

Simply saying there has been a lack of support by Scottish Government seems to cast the blame away from the responsible business owner of the care contract.

This is a rather harsh and uncaring way of putting it, but that is how contractual arrangements are made in a typical healthcare system as seen in the privatised USA.

I agree that home carers need thanked by being rewarded for their efforts, so how do we do this in a reasonable and equitable way?

A ‘carer’s income’ could be one step allowing the carer to step back from their normal employment, however, there are other issues in this area to be considered.

Finally, I would point out that listening to the daily briefings that Murdo Fraser and Jackson Carlaw want to shut down, Ms Freeman has thanked those people frequently for their efforts.

Alistair Ballantyne. Birkhill, Angus.