Care Homes Campaign

Half of Kingston's care home beds could be under threat, according to the results of a survey I carried out recently with Kingston Council's new Lib Dem Executive Member for Health and Community, Cllr Rolson Davies.

Many local care homes have already closed. This new survey shows many more could go soon if no action is taken.

The survey results

Cllr Rolson Davies sent a survey about the current and future needs of Kingston's care homes to 46 homes on 28th February 2002.

17 homes have replied, a response rate of almost 40%. Between them, these homes provide 399 beds in the Borough. The results present a gloomy picture for care home places in the Borough.

9 of the 17 are homes are considering closure; 2 have already decided to close. Should all these homes close, 222 of the 399 beds would be lost (56%). These 222 beds are made up of 165 nursing beds and 57 residential beds. Of these, 93 nursing beds and 31 residential beds are occupied by state funded residents.

The three most cited reasons for considering closure are:

1. Increased costs due to implementation of the new national minimum standards for care homes (top or equal top concern for 10 homes)

2. Inadequate fee levels (top or equal top concern for 7 homes)

3. Higher rate of return from redevelopment of the premises (top or equal top concern for 2 homes)

Comments included:

• "The new national standards increase unnecessary paperwork"
• "The new regulations require all single bedrooms to be 12 sq metres [an increase from 10 sq metres]. At the same time they require corridors to be wider. This would require major capital expenditure. This alone makes compliance with the regulations a non-viable commercial proposition."
• "With the new regulations it has become an extremely demanding job with reducing profits"
• "The freehold is worth more than the nursing home business."
• "It will be more profitable to run a guest house than a care home and once this change has been made there will be no going back."

National minimum standards

The costs of complying with the incoming national minimum standards were the chief cause of worry for care home owners.

Most are anticipating high costs to bring the premises up to standard. In many cases these will be prohibitive.

Even if the homes threatening to close remain open, at least 83 beds out of 399 (20%) will be lost because of the increase in the minimum room size regulations. Despite the announcement of a "bed blocking initiative" by the Government in October 2001, only 1 care home that replied has been involved in discussions with social services about this initiative.

Fees

For most homes, the increase in their costs far outstrips the increase in fee income from both local service funded patients and self-funded patients.

For most homes, the increase in costs is more than double the increase in fees received. Half the homes who replied said that they have considered refusing state-funded patients in the past 12 months due to inadequate fee levels. Many say the increase in state funded fees is not sufficient to cover increasing costs

Staff

Several responses said that holding onto staff is increasingly difficult because of low wages and long hours

Some also commented on the national lack of qualified nurses and said that was certainly affecting their ability to find and retain staff. Although one said that use of agency staff would have to increase, some others said that they could not afford agency staff so would have to cope without.