by Peter Lazenby

HUNDREDS of vulnerable NHS patients are being trapped in hospital because the privatised care industry cannot get staff to look after them at home.

After more than 20 years of attacks on home care workers’ pay and working conditions, more than 200 home care managers told the Institute of Health and Social Care Management that they have had to turn down requests for care in the last month because of insufficient staffing levels.

UK Home Care Association chief executive Dr Jane Townson said that care worker shortages are currently “the worst that anyone can remember.”

She said that staff were “leaving in droves,” causing local councils to struggle to find care placements and hospitals to worry about delayed discharges.

“Does the government think that the NHS is going to look after all of these older people at home, that should be at home but can’t be because there’s no support, are they going to put them all up in NHS hospitals?” she said.

“And then that means that loads of people that need surgery and other things won’t be able to get a bed.”

We Own It campaign group said that in the 1990s, 95 per cent of care services were provided by local authorities using directly employed staff.

Privatisation has seen profit-driven private companies take over the “vast majority” of provision of services and the jobs of care workers.

We Own It said that the privateers expected a profit margin of 12 per cent.

To achieve it care workers’ wages were attacked, employers withdrew payment for the time care workers spent travelling from one client to another, and employers even cut payment to home care workers who had to stay overnight with vulnerable clients.

GMB national officer Rachel Harrison said that the shortage of care staff was “a direct result of the appalling pay and conditions — often including zero hours contracts — our dedicated care workers are forced to endure.

“Carers are highly skilled professionals, who made incredible sacrifices during the pandemic,” she said. 

“They should be treated and paid as such. Care workers deserve £15 an hour, no less. 

“The government needs to stop kicking care plans into the long grass and ensure our crumbling social care system is properly funded.”