Why is elderly care failing? Older people have human rights too

You are probably right about young people. I can remember even in my 40’s being totally disinterested in the question of getting a pension – but I was not very money-minded as I assumed the welfare state was there to take care of me (that’s what they said when they took my health and national insurance contributions).
But the government has no excuse. Statistical predictions about the increasing proportion of elderly people in the population have been around for years. One of the problems is that ‘the elderly’ have never been a united pressure group, so it was easy to ignore the facts. That plus the endemic ageism in our society.

i do sympathize with the Elderly but as you cannot recruit enough of the local English nurses as most of them do not want to take on a physically and mentally “unpleasant” job, hence the NHS had for centuries has to go abroad to recruit foreign nurses who are lured to the promises of good pay and a attraction of a Nursing qualification. In reality, they are “Modern Day” Maids and may I say slaves because the local people are not prepared to do this most unpleasant demanding job!!!

I’m speaking from my own experiences as I’m a nurse for 38 years.

I have worked in Care Homes now for nearly 30 years and I have met nearly all types of people from all parts of the World and this leads me to believe that you really haven’t a clue about what you are talking about, In English Nursing Homes it is obligatory to staff 24/7 with a Qualified Nurse who must be Registered in England with the Authorities. All Nurses from abroad must be vetted by an existing Trained and Registered Nurse over a 6 Months period to ensure they are able to carry out their duties in the Care Home.
I am not aware of the regs. in the NHS but I believe many Nurses who have passed through our doors have subsequently worked in the NHS
.Please try and get out of your “Island” mentallity and understand one simple fact ie WITHOUT NURSES AND DOCTORS FROM ABROAD THE WHOLE SYSTEM IN THE NHS WOULD HAVE COLLAPSED YEARS AGO.
Perhaps the above concept is to large for small minds to understand but hey we keep on doing this thankless job of ours.

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Dear Patrick,

Glad you are keeping your eye open wouldn’t want to upset people would we , even if they are demeaning and insulting to us .

This is not my experience. My, thankfully brief, stay in a care home which I was told was very good (I was unable to check this out before as I was an emergency),was only made bearable by the presence of 2 foreign nurses, both from Rumania and both speaking excellent English. The otherwise English staff were indifferent and sometimes quite unpleasant. I could see them chatting over coffee in the office and totally ignoring the board registering bells calling for help.
Also, when I’ve been in hospital I found the foreign nurses excellent and very humane. Perhaps because they come from countries where elderly people are respected and cared for at home. Stop blaming foreigners ; we are responsible for this mess.

We have employed Philipinoes (Mainly Qualified Nurses) for many years , becuase of the lack of British Nurses willing to do this work. They are also now being employed more and more by the NHS.
We have always found them to be hard working and pleasant people who come miles from Home solely to provide for their families at Home. Surely this attitude should be applauded and not ridiculed.

I trained as a S.E.N in 1979, then much later converted to R.G.N. My experience over the years was mostly care of the elderly in hospital. I also spent many years as a Community Nurse which again was mostly elderly care. When I was being trained in College/ University we were taught to nurse at a high standard. My experience on the wards was a complete contrast, there was never enough staff, days/night shift, many patients didn’t get the care they deserved such as personnel hygiene, help with feeding, and finding time to communicate and help with mobility. Myself and many other members of staff/ team were just as frustrated, we had been trained to a high standard but felt we were failing our patients needs and there family’s needs, it was impossible to maintain such high standards when we had a shortage of staff, which was often I might add. I became disappointed and frustrated and I felt a failure. I moved jobs and became a community nurse which was so much more satisfying.

The care of our elderly loved ones is a disgrace, be it in hospital, residential care and nursing homes, I have from my own personnel account of this as my elderly aunt aged 91, and my friends elderly relative have both had a recent admission to hospital, both relatives were not fed or did they not have access to their drinking water, both were continent before admission, but shortage of staff made this another problem and caused extreme loss of dignity despite there age. I would also like to add that the meals they were offered was discussting, and we were taking food in. We were both told that they didn’t have time to feed relatives and we would have to go in and do this our selves. My cousin works full time and so does my friend, we had to sort this out our selves. This is disgusting!

The standard of care has dropped due to the fact that there are so many people being employed by the fact that they are holding the title of health care assistant, or personnel assistant and yes they have minimal training and are CHEAP!!!! Compared to a trained nurse.

Dear Gladys,
Nursing homes, as you know, are run by nurses if they are as bad as you say why have you and your colleagues not done anything about it in all the 24 years you have been working there. The nhs were in charge of nursing homes at this time and could have easily closed them down if they had wished.
Maybe nurse kathy’s memories of the hospitals might explain the problem which i had to deal with in trying to improve care in the private sector over the last 30 years.
The situation is still not perfect but and it never will be due to under funding of the private sector (cost of care home placement one quarter of the price of a hospital placement)
When condemning a nursing home please be so kind as to compare with the hospital equivalent which is four times the price.

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This is happening all over the country, don’t blaim the care provider blaim the council and goverment for underfunding

The whole “system” is TOTALLY under the control of The Social Services Department of the County Council. The Fund, Specifiy services obtain tenders and place Contracts to Providers .
They are also repsoncible for monitoring and vetting the service and for removing any unsuitable Provider. The only other agency which has just recently been involved is the CQC which as others have pointed out doesn’t really get that involved as yet in vetting the Care at Home System.
Before even properly starting the Public Sector through various avenues have begun to blame the CQC for the mess that the “Care at Home” system is in >As usual the Public sector blames everyone (particularly the Private Sector) for the mess THEY have caused.

Glad to hear that mum is getting a workable pakage from your new Provider, some problems cannot be dealt with overnight.

I personally do not think that this system will ever work properly without the correct level of financing Bearing in mind the whole idea is that it should be cheaper than a the Residential Care Home which it’ s supposed to replace at £500 per week for 24/7 Care

Dear Anthony,
I have been involved with Care of the Elderly for nearly 30 years and I have met many different people from all over the world and to say the least I am amazed to read your comments degrading your colleagues and the rest of this Country, you obviously haven,t visited other Countries and seen the appalling conditions out there.The main reason we have found for “Native workers” not taking up jobs is that the dole system encourages them not to.
In the Group I work for Good Caring “Native ” workers are by far in the majority maybe it’s your own employment policies (as a manager) you should be looking at

I have heard that the legal position in Germany is that adult children are responsible for their parents in old age and that the state can look to them to fund care home fees.

I agree – where the elderly have children it should be a family responsibility to help in their care when they need it. For those without family help, and lack of finance, then the socially-run care system should look after them. This would relieve pressure on an overloaded system, but more importantly provide loving and considerate care. For most of us, our parents looked after us when we needed them – payback time (hopefully for most of us a willing, if maybe inconvenient, act of love and respect).

I wonder what the majority of the population would say if that were to become the law in the UK? If one of the main political parties were to put it in its next manifesto, would it be regarded as a vote winner or a vote loser? Presumably, it would attract the votes of the older generation. Would it lose the votes of the younger ones? Would this be a new political divide? I wonder if anyone has ever done any research into it and, if so, what was the result. Perhaps, if there were one of those 100,000 petitions it would achieve a debate in Parliament. Should we ask “Which” to look into it?

@ Ariadne

‘I have heard that the legal position in Germany is that adult children
are responsible for their parents in old age and that the state can look
to them to fund care home fees.’

Singapore has similar laws too but it is rarely if at all enforced coming
from a legal practitioner or lawyer there well-versed in such matters.