Forum Brief: Long term care

A royal commission has criticised the government and called for free long-term care for the elderly in England and Wales.

The commission, set up by the government in 1997 to review the issue of free personal care for the elderly across the UK, warned on Monday that the issue had become "acute and a matter of major public concern".

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health told ePolitix.com: "The government has accepted each of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on long term care except the recommendation to provide free personal care.

"What older people tell us is that improvements in the quality and choice of care is as important as funding. We could spend the additional £1.4 billion the government is making available annually for improvements in service delivery on giving people free personal care, but we would buy not a single extra bed, not a single extra service, nor a single break for a family carer.

"Seven out of ten people already get some or all of their personal care costs paid for by the state. The government believe that it is fairer to spend the £1 billion cost of providing free personal care (something that will only ever benefit the better off) on improving services for all older people who need them, enabling older people to be more independent and to delay, or even avoid, the need for them to enter residential or nursing home care."

Paul Burstow, spokesman for older people, said: "Tony Blair has betrayed pensioners and their families. Labour has forced thousands of older people to sell their homes to pay for long term care.

"The Royal Commissioners are right to warn the government that, unless they act on free care for the elderly, the system will implode.

"Minister's are treating the elderly in England like third class citizens. Their failure to follow Scotland's lead and make personal care free on the basis of need should haunt Tony Blair.

"Labour's cheapskate 'free-nursing care' scheme is a cruel hoax, which leaves frail elderly people picking up much of the bill for the most basic and intimate care they need.

"By re-igniting the debate on care and dignity in old age, the Royal Commissioners have turned the spotlight on what will be a key domestic battleground at the next general election.

"Liberal Democrats can point to our record in government in Scotland and guarantee that, where we have power, we will scrap the charges for personal care."

Forum Response: Help the Aged

Annie Stevenson, senior policy adviser (health and social care), for Help the Aged, said: "Help the Aged warmly welcomes the statement by the Royal Commissioners on long-term care.

"Long-term care is in disarray and is an issue that won't go away until the government deals with it properly. Many older people are feeling badly let down by the government as their care needs force them to navigate an increasingly complex and undervalued system.

"Most people are not aware how difficult it is to receive, and afford, care until they need it. The reality hits when people find it so difficult to access what they need and make sense of what is available.

"Because the provision of care is underfunded, some older people are not getting assessments when they need them, and others are receiving poor quality or inadequate services. Others are getting good quality services but are losing them.

"For example, excellent care homes are having to close due to quality care being underfunded. At best, choice is being eroded and at worst older people die as a result of being forcibly relocated. Their rights are not being upheld.

"We strongly believe that the failure of government to implement some of the Royal Commission's key recommendations at the time was a missed opportunity. The distinction between personal care and nursing care is a false one and the administration cost is vast.

"We would like the government to commit to the principle of free personal care in line with the aims of other UK nations, to set a much needed, clear overall policy direction on long-term care.

"In addition, the creation of a National Care Commission with a function for long-term strategic planning matching funding to evidence-based need would be the only way to stop the injustice and inequity that is so rife in long-term care for older people. We'd like to see all the proposed functions for this commission incorporated into the functions of the new Commission for Social Care Inspection."

Forum Response: Age Concern

Gordon Lishman, director general of Age Concern England, said: "It is almost five years since the Royal Commission published its groundbreaking report on long-term care. Their unprecedented statement today is an indictment of how little has changed in this time.

"Older people and their families still struggle with a complex, baffling system. And despite record numbers of complaints to the health ombudsman earlier this year, nothing has been done to simplify care provision.

"The Commission's argument for free care was listened to in Scotland. Age Concern continues to urge the government to implement free personal and nursing care throughout the UK, in line with the Commission's recommendations, and ensure older people don't lose out."

Forum Response: CARE

Adam Atkinson, spokesman for CARE, told ePolitix.com: "How a society looks after its most vulnerable members is surely a measurement of its civility. The elderly are an increasingly vulnerable group.

"In the UK we have nothing to be proud of; our elderly are treated as an inconvenience. However each elderly person is worthy of appropriate nursing care and also personal care - the two are indivisible.

"The nine members of the royal commission on long term care for the elderly who have reminded the government of their findings should be applauded to bringing this issue into the public eye again. The elderly need to have advocates and this powerful and experienced group should be listened to and it is now overdue for policy to be changed.

"In our fast-moving and often throwaway consumer society we are in danger of overlooking the elderly because they are not 'units of production'.

"We urge the government to act on what the royal commission recommends and not overlook and discard our valuable but vulnerable elderly people."