Dire warnings over potential collapse of care home sector and impact on wider NHS in Highlands
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Both Highland Council and NHS Highland have agreed to an emergency meeting over the plight of the care home sector in the Highlands to try and hammer some kind of a solution.
Neither organisation has the money to find more cash for care homes so when a facility is lost it is not replaced – at a time of increasing demand.
Several fundamental problems have been identified including – the inability to recruit and retain staff, a lack of accommodation, ongoing short notice closures of care homes and a lack of capacity to relocate residents.
But Deputy First Minister John Swinney said in a letter to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) in response to a call to utilise reserves that no one should expect more money.
Councillor David Gregg who is himself a doctor, said at Thursday's Highland Council meeting in Inverness to discuss the situation: "The bit I am most concerned about is the line about the potential collapse of the care home sector in the Highlands – I think that is something we can all agree on that that is a serious risk.
"A seven per cent cut to our adult social care department will make that more likely and I know that we have to look at cuts across the council but where does the administration see in our adult social care directorate.
"The potential collapse of the care home sector is not just a collapse of the care home sector it is the collapse of the entire NHS (in region).
"Raigmore runs, Belford runs and Caithness General runs because patients are in care homes – if all the patients are not in care homes then they won’t all be in their own homes, some of them will fill up hospitals and acute beds."
He added: "It is a serious concern and it is something we need collaborative dialogue on."
And the chair of the health and social care committee Councillor David Fraser said: "Some of the challenges that we have come from our geography, our low density population and that means care homes are relatively small in the Highlands and therefore difficult to get economy of scale and relatively expensive to run.
"We also have a growing ageing population – within the term of this council it is anticipated that there will be a 15 per cent increase in the over 75 population and slightly smaller increase in the over 85s.
"If nothing changes and given the level of people going into care homes that would require an extra 240 spaces in care homes – that is just part of the challenge ahead of us.
"This, along with the ongoing service delivery, there is also the inability to recruit and retain staff that results in the high agency costs, we have problems with affordable accommodation and short notice closures of care homes.
"The cost of living crisis which we are all facing is adding to an already difficult process and we have already seen the impact of this with three managed care home closures, three ownership transfers and two others are in the market.
"So in summary we have increased demand in the market in a time of fewer facilities and huge financial challenges."
