New care home is welcome, but staff recruitment won’t be easy

Sir - Like a ray of light from a leaden sky, a good news story amid those of misfortune and misbehaviour – building work has started on a new care home in the leafy suburbs of Aberdeen.

For the fact that the development is under way we can thank the Holyrood planning supremos, who overruled the city council’s decision to reject the scheme for the most tenuous of reasons.

Scotland is a country with an ever-increasing problem – a low birth rate moves the population dynamic towards an ageing society. The numbers requiring care, both in the community and residential, will inevitably increase.

Already a consequence of the present shortage is there for all to see – our hard-pressed NHS bearing an unacceptable load with many patients deemed fit for discharge languishing in hospital beds. That the new facility will stand close to an upmarket hotel is of no consequence – those resident are unlikely to be involved in the brand of late-night revelry that would disturb the guests who can afford to slumber in five-star luxury.

Once built, recruitment of staff will be far from easy. While a career in a pre-school nursery is desired, that at the opposite end of the age spectrum does not have the same attraction.

Until the status and renumeration at present enjoyed by those in equivalent positions within the NHS becomes statutory throughout our care system, the task of tending to our loved ones, now frail in body or mind, will be reliant on carers from overseas.

Let’s get rid of the “Is that the only job you could get?” description – see a future in the care sector as a career to be relished. If fates be unkind, anyone in society may be dependent on its support.

Ivan W Reid, Kirkburn, Laurencekirk.

DEVELOPMENT: An artist’s impression of the new care home to be built in Aberdeen.