Decades of underinvestment in care homes has been revealed in a new CQC report and the reality of this has finally hit home in Sheffield. Covid-19 was the straw that broke the camel’s back as reported on by Sky News today.
We have repeatedly warned that care home closures would be likely without better support at a national level. We know that locally Sheffield Teaching Hospitals have been huge supporters of care homes and the local Council have done what they can with limited resources.
But without a national solution, good, well run care homes with amazing staff, like the one we operated in Newfield, will continue to close.
Long-term, the only solution must be a more sensible and integrated funding system for the care system. We can no longer be seen as the Cinderella sector to the NHS.
We know we face a challenge over the weeks and months ahead with Covid-19 with us for the foreseeable future.
We need the national government to listen to organisations like the National Care Association which are calling for a long-term care strategy, improved funding and measures to improve staff recruitment and retention in the sector.
This will further enhance the care we are giving at our excellent homes at Northfield and Westbourne.
At Northfield and Westbourne we have invested in visiting pods to enable more family visits, even during the winter months, we have technology in residents’ rooms to make communication with family as easy as possible.
We have maintained socially-distanced entertainment such as sing-a-longs and playing board games with residents to keep their spirits up.
We also have amazing staff who will continue to build our successful communities at Northfield and Westbourne.