A retired senior Aberystwyth social care worker has called on part-nationalisation of services to prevent ‘catastrophe’ in the sector deepening in Ceredigion amid the latest nursing home closure.
George Holloway, who worked for Ceredigion County Council social services as a home carer and then a qualified social worker, said the closure of Hafan y Waun would pile more pressure on a system that was already under ‘intolerable strain’.
Mr Holloway, who retired 11 years ago, also encouraged the county council to look at a partnership with Hywel Dda University Health Board (HDUHB) to safeguard the home.
Mr Holloway retains relationships with former colleagues and those in the sector in the county and is very familiar with the challenges that have worsened since he retired.
“Chronic underfunding means that home-care packages in Ceredigion run at an average of around 95 minutes per day and include barely three 15-minute calls daily to ensure someone’s wellbeing,” he said.
“This reduction in homecare on an individual basis was allowed after emergency laws were passed during the pandemic.
“There is, however, no real indication of a marked improvement in provision after the expiry date of the powers, which was set to be March last year.
“The loss of elderly mentally infirm (EMI) residential care beds means one of three things: there are more people with greater needs at home, more responsibility is placed on families or people are reliant on more suitable placements further away from home.
“Legislation enacted in 1992 obliged statutory health and care bodies to tender services out to the private sector.
“There is an argument that this part-privatisation lowers standards and ends up costing more due to variables such as delayed discharges and higher charges for out of county placements.
“There is always the risk too that in today’s financial climate, private sector homes can close without adequate notice.
“What lessons may be learned from this? Perhaps the time is right to rebalance the private/public ownership situation.
“Successive health and social care acts have instructed care bodies to integrate their finances which could speed this process of providing and not just buying care.
“Demographic studies show the projected rise in the older population means that more, not fewer, residential and nursing care beds will be needed - something which was known to the county council despite its determination to close Bodlondeb.”
Bodlondeb care home in Penparcau, which was the only council-run care home in the county, closed in 2018 despite a campaign to save it and criticism from residents.
The home had been caring for residents for more than 50 years but councillors decided it would be too costly to maintain and efforts to attract a private-sector social care buyer failed.
The future of the building is still shrouded in mystery.
Chief executive of HDUHB, Steve Moore, spoke about the challenges faced in a board meeting held on 30 March.
He said: “Therein lies a huge challenge for us, not just in the care home market but across all our services in both health and social care and the forecast number of working age people versus older people even in the next ten years, we have a big problem coming. Even now things are very challenging.”
These conclusions are shared by the findings of various West Wales Care Partnership reports.
The county’s population of people aged over 65 is projected to increase from around a quarter to a third in under two decades, according to a recent Care Partnership report that went before the county council.
HDUHB papers show the number of people aged 85 or over in Ceredigion is expected to increase by 25 per cent by 2031 – and dementia cases are forecasted to be up 36 per cent by 2030.
“Ceredigion struggles to attract residential and nursing care for a number of reasons,” Mr Holloway added. “It is viewed by some as ‘remote’ which may dissuade qualified staff who wish to work and live in places with more amenities.
“It doesn’t have the concentrated centres of population which attract the multiple home operators.
“Ceredigion has a high proportion of independent care homes which are more vulnerable to economic downturns and wages are uncompetitive - which dissuades care staff, who can get less onerous work for more money elsewhere.
“But the departure of the current owner/operator of Hafan y Waun may be an opportunity to improve services.
“Carmarthenshire County Council and HDUHB are currently collaborating on a major scheme, Pentre Awel in Llanelli, where the council provides the buildings and HDUHB the staff.
“If this could be replicated on the Hafan y Waun site then there is the possibility of service delivery being improved by having the convenience of a mix of resources at the one place and of EMI nursing care returning to Ceredigion.
“I believe that the owners of Hafan y Waun are putting the home on the open market, so the building could become offices, a motel or anything else.
“The onus is on Ceredigion County Council and HDUHB to work together in an integrated fashion to acquire this relatively new (built in 2006) purpose-built building to create a facility which goes some way into relieving a care crisis which is at risk of becoming a care catastrophe.”