As the nation ages, things seem only to get worse for our
residential care home providers. We might (ahem) need them more than ever, but
board members may be excused for reaching for the alarm pendants as they map out the next
12 months.
Southern Cross Healthcare is the latest provider to feel the
chill, in its case a 65% fall in earnings and a 14% decline in admissions by
local authorities in the final three months of 2010.
The UK's biggest owner of care homes blames local authority
spending cuts, with only tacit censure of the government's austerity measures that have caused them.
Pointing to the fees feud with the boroughs, chief executive
Jamie Buchan said in the Financial Times: "We are very concerned at what we see as local authorities
ignoring the real cost of care." Perhaps he will elaborate when Care
Quality Commission inspectors next slate one of Southern Cross's
establishments.
Buchan went on to compare the provider's services to
the ethos of the Big Society as NHS-referred admissions rose. A veiled appeal
to the government, I wonder?
Certainly, it will be a challenging year ahead for everyone, including the courts.
Providers are already threatening to take Wirral Council to court after the
authority slashed care home fees by 9.5%.
And Pembrokeshire Council was ordered by a judge to raise
its rates to providers at a cost of £1.5m after attempting to freeze fees for
2010-11 at 2009-10 levels.
Meanwhile, seven of County Durham's 12 local authority-run care
homes are expected to shut, although the council says this is due to the rise
in independent living. And North Yorkshire announced the closure of nine homes
(see end of story in link).
The question remains: if the private sector can no longer expand provision and the public sector is forced to gradually
withdraw, who will fill the space as the nation ages?
Any ideas? Let me know below.
More
on Southern Cross Healthcare
Picture: Rex Features
