Care services still letting down capital’s elderly people

HEALTH and social services are continuing to let down elderly people and their relatives and carers in Edinburgh, according to a new report.

A devastating report in May last year by Scotland’s care watchdogs said the city’s services for older people were barely adequate, and warned substantial work was needed to improve them.

Now an updated report by the Care Inspectorate and Healthcare Improvement Scotland says only limited progress has been made.

It also states that services have “deteriorated” in other important areas of care. The review warns that older people and their families are not getting the support they need when they need it.

Meanwhile large numbers are facing a lengthy wait before they get any help at all.

The city has seen an increase in delayed discharges from hospital as people who are fit to return home cannot. This is because Edinburgh has not made the necessary progress towards providing care for more people in the community.

A spokeswoman for the city’s Health and Social Care Partnership said the report – based on a visit by inspectors in June – reflected services as they were in the spring, but that improvements had been made since.

CARE for the elderly in Edinburgh continues to be poorly managed, with dementia sufferers waiting too long to be diagnosed, managers failing to communicate with “frustrated” staff and people who are fit to return home stranded by some of the worst bed-blocking in the country, according to a new report.

The review by care watchdogs is a follow-up to a damning report published in May 2017, which made 17 recommendations to tackle “significant weaknesses” in services across the city. Inspectors say rather than delivering comprehensive improvements, the response of the city’s Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) response has been “reactive and short term”.

Performance in important areas has deteriorated, it says, and older people and carers could not get help even when their needs were critical or substantial. Meanwhile weaknesses in leadership had continued.

Progress has been made in the help offered to elderly people who are at risk of falling and aspects of risk management.

The biggest improvements have been delivered because of the dedication of frontline staff and the partnership itself has not addressed key areas of concern, the report says.

Senior managers are failing to communicate with staff who are “tangibly frustrated”.

“Staff were looking for more visible and positive leadership to take them through a critical period,” the review says.

It found there was still an insufficient understanding of the needs of carers and other problems were also unaddressed. “It remained the case that across Edinburgh people with dementia did not always receive a timely diagnosis and services were not always coordinated.” Initiatives designed to reduce falls had been rolled out and constituted “good” progress. But the HSCP continued to lack a strategy to ensure there were sufficient care home places for those who need them. A review of care at home services was yet to begin. The report goes on: “It was not clear why this area of work had not been given more priority and commenced sooner.”

The review concluded: “It was still not uncommon for large numbers of older people to wait for lengthy periods before getting the support they needed... the partnership’s performance in important areas of service delivery had deteriorated.”

Gordon Weir, interim chief executive of the Care Inspectorate said: “The review found that the health and social care partnership has significant progress still to make to deliver the right care at the right time and in the right setting. Inspectors will now work with the HSCP to make clear the scale and nature of the improvements expected, he added.

Alastair Delaney, director of quality assurance for Healthcare Improvement Scotland, said: “There is clearly still much work to be done to give the people of Edinburgh the services and quality of services they need.”

A spokeswoman for the HSCP conceded the report had highlighted key areas for improvement. She said “The Partnership has set new trajectories for improvement in reducing delayed discharge figures which are showing early signs of improvement.”

Judith Proctor, chief officer, HSCP, said: “We are committed to making the improvements required ... and will continue to work with the Care Inspectorate and Healthcare Improvement Scotland in our action and improvement plans.

“The report is a fair snapshot of where the service was in spring of this year.

Since then, early signs of improvement are encouraging. We fully expect to be in an improved position when the inspectors revisit next year.”