An exodus of social care staff to better-paid jobs in supermarkets, retail and hospitality is fuelling the worst NHS crisis since records began. The Times has more.
Leading doctors told the Times that the “frightening” situation in A&Es was now worse than during the Covid peak but said the solution was to “give money to social care – not us”.
Social care is due to receive only £5.4 billion of the government’s new £36 billion package for healthcare reform, funded through a rise in national insurance that was introduced this month.
NHS chiefs warned that the “bottleneck” in hospitals would deteriorate further unless social care capacity was increased so that patients could be safely discharged from wards.
Medical organisations said it was vital that carers receive a pay rise so they earn more than they would “stacking shelves in Tesco”.
Some 410,000 staff quit social care last year. Vacancies in the sector have almost doubled in the past year, with one in ten posts now empty – a shortage of about 160,000 staff.
Widespread labour shortages and the cost-of-living crisis means staff are being lured to jobs in supermarkets with higher wages, while companies such as Amazon are offering “golden handshakes” of up to £3,000.
This has reduced capacity in care homes, with four in ten refusing to take on new admissions – meaning elderly and vulnerable patients end up stranded on hospital wards.
NHS England figures show a record 13,000 patients a day are taking up beds because they cannot be discharged, creating a logjam in hospitals and ambulance services that is “costing lives”.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Many people have claimed that this crisis has been caused by the Government’s insistence that care home workers had to be jabbed from November 11th 2021 as a condition of remaining employed. That may well be a contributory factor, but it’s worth pointing out that that policy was revoked on March 15th.
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”….that policy was revoked on March 15th.”
So ”revoking” the policy should have immediately resulted in a surge of carers returning?
I should think that a great number of these employees decided they wouldn’t touch the job again with a barge pole if they could find some other work.
‘NHS chiefs warned that the “bottleneck” in hospitals would deteriorate further unless social care capacity was increased so that patients could be safely discharged from wards.’
This is NOT new. In years gone by Winter ‘flu took care of it.
“it’s worth pointing out that that policy was revoked on March 15th”
What sort of apologetic idiotic thinking is that? The policy has not been revoked in other countries. The trust has been lost. When you consider your career and know there are crazy people in charge of the sector, you don’t pay attention to what policy has been temporarily revoked, you pay attention to what may happen to you in the future. Which is precisely what those workers are doing.
Continually wearing a mask that you know doesn’t work and is detrimental to your health, having to load your personal medical details onto a central system, having your time monitored continuously, knowing that you are working for people who supported contravening the Nuremburg code without challenging the data.
People who care about others and choose to look after them do not deserve to be treated like that.
The only people who are left are the ones who haven’t yet found alternative jobs at salaries they can accept.
So not enough healthcare or care workers, combined with the potential tsunami of health issues arising from having injected 45 million people with a biological weapon that suppresses the innate immune system and reduces the bodies ability to fight cancer. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35436552/ ( I do not accept that the current rise in cases is due mainly to backlog, it is far more likely to be as a result of adverse impact of the covid injections but due to the diverse range of symptoms is not being linked to it (nor would the government or MHRA want it to be).
I am frightened for what the future holds for younger people.
Oh so predictable, as was the huge damage done to kids. But the woke don’t care about anyone but themselves.
They may have removed the enforced medical experiment in November, but that was after tens of thousands left the Care Sector. And who, unjabbed, would want to take a chance on it now, knowing full well that the Government is doing its best to make it mandatory through the back door.
Arrogant Ministers didn’t understand that it takes a strong character to work in Social Care. They thought they could bully a low-paid workforce into taking the monkey juice …. and found that they had miscalculated.
Well said, back of the net!
Um, I am not sure I understand the point of the Stop Press comment. Is that tongue in cheek? A joke?
“Many people have claimed that this crisis has been caused by the Government’s insistence that care home workers had to be jabbed from November 11th 2021 as a condition of remaining employed. That may well be a contributory factor, but it’s worth pointing out that that policy was revoked on March 15th”.
Yesterday, I sent this to a Labour leaning friend who said the bed blocking was there before the Care Home injection of staff mandates….
“Sure, Anna and I get that, but come on, my Mother in Law’s care home which has capacity for only about 30 residents had to let 10 long term, loyal full time staff go.
Ten!!!
All because they were rightly (as it turned out) v worried about this MRNA gene therapy experimental injection.
If we weren’t still under emergency measures with censorship, (please ask yourself why we ever were and still are!), then maybe a decent, honest journalist would expose this more and work out exactly what proportion were sacked or coerced to leave.
Rough figures I have seen think it is about… Read more »
“care home workers had to be jabbed from November 11th 2021 as a condition of remaining employed. That may well be a contributory factor, but it’s worth pointing out that that policy was revoked on March 15th.”
Many left the sector because of the bullying and coercion to get jabbed – I know of three in one small local care home – never to return.
And it may have been revoked but care homes are still insisting on vaccination.
I have a young friend who needs 24 hour support at home and recently it’s been a huge problem finding enough staff there too. I’ve been wondering how many ‘caring types’ have been employed in vaccine and testing centres and in many other COVID-fear capacities (eg sitting all day outside a public toilet to make sure only one person at a time went in). I’m betting they were all paid above minimum wage.
People who work in care homes are on the minimum wage and often on zero hours contracts. They have found other jobs that may not pay better but don’t involve wearing a mask for the whole shift, cleaning up other people’s excrement or being beaten round the head by a ‘service user’,as my niece was recently, and ending up in hospital with concussion.
Care homes mostly relied on Eastern European labour. Much of that disappeared after Brexit. The only answer for care homes is for them to be taken over by local authorities and for the staff to be on decent wages and proper contracts. There should also be an acceptance that some people (the person who beat up my niece was an autistic adult male) need to be looked after by strong men, not underpaid young women.
“Stop Press: Many people have claimed that this crisis has been caused by the Government’s insistence that care home workers had to be jabbed from November 11th 2021 as a condition of remaining employed. That may well be a contributory factor, but it’s worth pointing out that that policy was revoked on March 15th.”
Yes but a lot had left by then. Certainly a couple in my SITP group left because they refused to take the experimental gene therapy treatment. One of them now works for Centre Parcs earning a lot more and doesn’t, as far as I know, have to wipe old people’s bottoms.
‘Stop Press’ – Toby – yes, the mandate has been rescinded, but those who returned home to Central Europe remain ‘returned home’, those who left, remain ‘left’. It’s like selling a car and wondering why you have to walk everywhere….. Things change slowly for the better, and rapidly for the worse.
Is cheap labour from central/eastern Europe really the answer? Surely people working in care homes should have decent wages and decent working conditions?
This is exactly the problem and where we are right now – everybody wanted cheap, cheap, cheap, and bought a load of poor quality items Made in China because… they were cheap.
Buy cheap, get cheap.
When millions of foreigners are imported, and they say to your boss they’ll do your job for less money, don’t be surprised when you find yourself out on your ear and the incomer is sitting happily in your chair. Good for them, good for your boss. But, hey, you wanted the ‘diversity’ and ‘multiculturalism’ so suck it up, buttercup, whilst you stand in line at the dole office.
I suspect this has far more to do with forcing care staff to take jabs, than it is payrises. Social care, special needs etc etc have notoriously been poorly paid because these people often fill a vocational need. Before the creep of bureaucratic and unionised healthcare most social needs were provided more than adequately families in the community. This created close communities who looked out for each other.
yet another overreach by a useless Government to control our lives.
We need to get rid of the useless Government
“We need to get rid of the useless Government”
Who is this ‘we’? The people spraying the handles of their shopping trolleys? People who can’t find tins of cheap tomatoes in Aldi? The people who claim they are going to boycott Tesco’s but continue shopping there? The people who snitched on their neighbours to the Police for ‘breaking the lockdown rules’?
It may be that the no jab policy was revoked on March 15, but those care workers aren’t getting their jobs back.
“but it’s worth pointing out that that policy was revoked on March 15th.”
…the big bully finally stopped threatening me but is still in charge of me. The point is that now I know I work for a bully who has all the power. It’s not a healthy relationship. It’s very very bad for my mental health. Should I just say “oh it’s all okay now, it was just a mistake”… Some people don’t stay in abusive relationships.
What is it about politicians that they are incapable of listening? It’s not as if the results on Social Care employment of their idiotic vaccine mandate weren’t shouted from the rooftops. Let alone the result of low pay. Yes the mandate finished 3 weeks ago. But the horse was half way to Kyiv by early January!!
I’m one of the first to condemn governments as being useless and wasteful however, most people don’t recognise, even now, the purpose of Maggie Thatcher’s quite radical reformation of a hopeless, post WW2 country which had not progressed in any way beyond that war.
Yes she made mistakes, yes she seemed brutal, and yes to all the claims of her right wing ‘excesses’ but, all our industries that were basically nationalised for the war effort were never de nationalised after the war. They fell into being unprofitable burdens on the economy run by unions (and I support unions as a necessary voice of the working man) who were at least as corrupt as any government.
Britain was a wounded industrial nation facing the threat of the industrialising Europe and, more importantly, the far east, principally Japan, but south Korea, Taiwan etc. at the time but by the 1970’s, China as well.
Shipyards, steel production and car manufacturing here could only be competitive if we paid coolie (oriental term for navvy) wages.
We simply couldn’t do it. We are far to small a country to assemble the numbers of cheap, often forced labour to compete.
So Maggie figured, correctly in my… Read more »
Excellent observation. However, I must confess that it is actually all my fault. I lived in the UK from 1958 to 1985 – thereby presiding over its fundamental collapse. Since then, I’ve lived in the USA where I seem to have had exactly the same effect.
Is there a country you despise that you’d like me to move to next?
LOL. I claim that right of societal collapse as I moved to the UK in 1966 when it all began. Had I been here as a one year old in 1957 I would have done something about it of course. 🙂
Thank you for bringing the World Cup with you when you moved 👍
“it’s worth pointing out that that policy was revoked on March 15th.” A bit late for those who’d already been forced out and decided never to go back.
I was about to say the same. And are care homes and providers willing to take on the unvaccinated now? I know my singing group, who visit care homes to sing with the residents, can’t have me back as i am unvaccinated and homes won’t allow me in.
“That may well be a contributory factor”. Is that you Saj?
“Some 410,000 staff quit social care last year. Vacancies in the sector have almost doubled in the past year, with one in ten posts now empty – a shortage of about 160,000 staff.”
I bet the bosses at P&O know where to get plenty of cheap labour. Why doesn’t Javid give them a ring?
We have to have a serious debate about the state of the NHS removing all emotion from the discussion otherwise we’re going to be in a horrible, horrible place sooner rather than later. It’s not a discussion primarily about money either.
Several million people on waiting lists of indeterminate length for cancer appointments and who can’t afford to be treated privately are in that horrible, horrible place already. And yes the hospitals monitor waiting lists carefully so they know know fairly accurately p how long the wait will be but won’t say in the interests of expectation management, or arse covering just plain bureaucratic bloody mindednesses.
Primarily government intervention. The medical community were instructed to conform. Wrong, but that’s another discussion.
They cold have objected, voiced their opposition, resigned or otherwise rebelled. Did they?
No as the environment doesn’t encourage questioning. Quite the opposite as we’ve read about those health care professionals who have been treated as heretics for suggesting the pandemic response was a bit off.
Political meddling and using the NHS as a political weapon is a key part of the problem. My neighbour is German and her recollection is that the government aren’t allowed to meddle in their health care system. Not sure how true that is.
It was Labour that started the trend of bashing the opposition using the NHS.
So yes, stopping government meddling would be a good start but the NHS itself has to admit that it’s mainly the problem with massive inefficiency. We’ve all seen this first hand. Mum, who sadly passed away during pandemic (don’t get me started on being PREVENTED from seeing her) left behind two massive boxes full of unopened bandages. My gf, a nurse, reckoned there was about £500 of bandages in there. Ended up giving them to a local company who runs first aid training courses.
In her last few years mum visited hospital far more often than we’d all wish but seeing the creaking systems just highlights how bad it’s got. I was about to scream if one more person asked me for the (long) list of medications mum was taking.
We would inevitably reach the conclusion that the NHS isn’t fit for purpose as no other country has adopted the model.
It’s laughable that the NHS is held up as a paragon of socialist ‘caring and sharing’ intervention when, with the possible exception of nurses and some doctors, anything you care to point at at is privately produced.
The land, the buildings, the drugs, the equipment, the energy, cleaning, catering etc.
First problem to overcome is the resistance to change both from the NHS itself (they ARE blockers) and the love affair some members of the public have with the organisation. Fortunately (!) the degradation in service is helping with the later.
A different model is clearly needed before we end up with a two-tier system (arguably we’re there already) of those who can afford to pay and those who can’t. The gulf between the two is frankly embarrassing.
The Stop Press is a hopeless non sequitur. Those hounded out in November, or many of them, probably think that such treatment, followed by the usual government post-damage volte-face isn’t an incentive to rejoin. That’s assuming the social providers aren’t working their own restrictions, prompted in part by insurance cover problems.
What comes out of the NHS is the usual bleating and handwashing, tempered by the ever so generous redeployment of funds on other than Taylors times X, diversity managers and the rest.
The “vaccine” mandate may have recently been revoked but it’s important to realise that staff have been treated appallingly.
In “normal times” the employer would have been dragged over hot coals for the threats and bullying they applied to coerce their staff -many having worked in the industry for decades- into being jabbed with the black gunk.
Who would stick with an employer that treated them so bad? Especially if elsewhere pays better.
I deliver shopping for one of the big supers. I go to a few different care homes where I have seen, on the doors, notices that all visitors – workmen, hairdressers, tradesmen etc must have proof of being fully jabbed. It would seem many care homes are making up their own rules anyway. BTW – still pure, myself!
Social care is always the “poor relation” Private sector care staff – vaccine mandate: NHS staff vaccine mandate dropped. Extra money (at any time) NHS gets lots, private sector care services get buttons. Clap for NHS staff, crap for private sector care staff.
It has been like this for more than 10 years. Maybe it takes more “under pressure” whining from the NHS for someone to actually realise the basic problem resulting from under-funding private sector care homes and home care services (often because some prejudiced decision maker thinks it just feeds profits).
US insurance companies were reporting a 40% increase in death claims amongst the working age population for 2021, the year of the jab.
This is simiar to four or five Vietnam war death tolls in just one year.
The insurance companies have never before experieced anything like this, if the death rates are up 40% what are the injury rates up by.
Now what warp speed product was pushed on the working age public in 2021, I’m sure there was something novel they were really keen to shift.
Was it veganism?
Insurance companies don’t have their own agenda of course.
Funny how insurance companies, universally condemned as parasites, are rolled out as ‘evidence’ of medical malpractice when it suits a narrative.
I recently spoke to a carer who had moved from a home into the hospital. She told me she earnt 50p above minimum wage as a “supervisor” (senior carer) in the home she worked in. She didn’t get paid anything extra to work a night shift or a bank holiday or a weekend. It’s absolutely scandalous. Who would take a backbreaking job, lifting patients for 12 hours at a time, day and night, for minimum wage?
GP practices are also going to find themselves struggling with recruitment if there is a continued push towards evenings and weekends. GPs get away with slightly underpaying by having attractive hours compared to hospitals…
You can’t flood the country with millions of third worlders and expect it not to depress wages. We can add that to the list of things verboten to discuss. The government admits to 4.5m over the last ten years. It will be twice that. These are the very jobs affected by this kind of activity.
“Diversity is our Strength”
Is it really, when the ‘doctors’ in hospitals can’t even speak English? Where have they studied? Are they really qualified?
When have you ever met a doctor practising in the NHS who can’t speak English?
What a lot of shite.
Be explicit. Are these legal or illegal immigrants you are talking about.
I don’t suppose there are many doctors sailing across the English channel in RIBS.
Option one –
You are old and you are falling apart, pharma pumps you full of meds you don’t really benefit from so that you are semi sedated, you are a bit demented so you may or may not recognise your family members on any given day. You are going to be put in a ‘care home’ because you can’t even wipe your own arse any more, you may be locked down at any moment, heldin solitry confiemment and injected with poison by government medics at any point.
You can live (exist) like this for two or three years but doing so will more than absorb any wealth you acrued during life.
Option two
You get to decide when to call it a day before the horror of option one kicks in and you can decide to be ‘put to sleep’ much like you would a beloved family pet that you love too much to allow to suffer any further.
Why is option one the only legal option?
Option three, midazolam i.e. option 2 decided by someone else.
Why do you only give two options?
Both of which are bollox. Had anyone gone near my dementia suffering mother in law with a needle that was not discussed with us, they would have had the same jammed up their backside.
Nor were we alone in that contention. MrTea assumes we absolve ourselves of responsibility for the care of the people who cared for us into adulthood just because they go into a home.
The only case of an ‘overdose’ of drugs I actually know of was when my mother was dying of cancer and a succession of courageous Nurses turned up her pain relieving morphine pump over a few weeks until she finally passed away peacefully, free of excruciating pain.
I’m an ex cop and was frequently called on to witness the final moments of someone’s life when a doctor couldn’t be contacted. I also watched doctors in tears at the loss of patients who were more than just patients. Many had known and cared for them for decades. They lost friends.
Heart Inflammation More Prevalent Among Vaccinated Than Unvaccinated: Study
https://www.theepochtimes.com/heart-inflammation-higher-among-vaccinated-than-unvaccinated-study_4420652.html
By Zachary Stieber
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They didn’t bloody QUIT, they were bloody SACKED for claiming sovereignty over their own bodies.
Exactly. Passed with barely a murmur.
Is there any proof that care home workers were ‘sacked’?
Yes.
Another one of Thatcher’s chickens coming home to roost. We used to have convalescence homes where patients discharged from hospital were able to recuperate and benefit from physiotherapy and occupational therapy before returning to their homes. They were closed by Thatcher and that’s why we’re seeing bed blocking today.
I don’t know why you’ve been down voted for that, it sounds (sounded) like a very good idea. The trouble with this government is they are more than happy to splash the cash, or rather, waste money, on things like unused PPE, Nightingale hospitals and the like, for which we will never see a return, yet something useful like a convalescent home would cause massive teeth suckling about the cost.Think how much the government is spending housing illegal immigrants by taking over whole hotels – for healthy young men who are mostly economic migrants. How about taking over a hotel for the recovering British sick who have paid into the system all their lives and to whom the government really owes a duty of care – charity begins at home and all that. I have a friend who has been stuck in hospital since January – they don’t know what to do with him and seem to have no will to find him a care home as he can no longer care for himself. The system is totally broken.
Margaret Thatcher ceased to be PM in 1990, 32 years ago. What stopped Major, Blair, Brown Cameron and May from reversing her policy?
Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Blair!
They were closed because they were little more than death camps. We also used to lock the mentally ill up in asylums. I can’t count the number of escapees I scraped off the railway lines around Woodilee Hospital.
As Beowulf points out, Thatcher’s successors, ‘caring’ socialist governments did nothing to improve matters. Indeed, they largely made them worse.
So we open the door to India to get a trade deal…..