Mark Hales, chief executive of Claimar Care Group plc, has reacted to some of the points raised in a speech by Stephen O'Brien, Shadow Minister for Health at the Conservative conference on Caring for the Elderly, claiming that even though a few of the 'hot buttons' were pressed, the speech seemed completely void of detail.
Mark said: "Most disappointing was the absence of any proposals for the merging of social care and the health service
"It's good to see that the Conservatives recognize the contribution of informal Carers without which the system would grind to a halt, although he was silent on how he might support them.
A specific area of concern for me is the lack of training provided to informal carers. We recognize that paid carers require basic training in emergency first aid, food hygiene, risk assessment, medication management, adult protection, health and safety and probably most importantly, safe moving and handling. Informal carers receive none of this and are putting themselves and those they care for at risk.
Some support for informal carers would lead to less emergency intervention.
I'm interested in their comments regarding partnerships between the individual, the local authorities and the NHS. There is no explanation on how this is different to the existing eligibility criteria which has created a type of post code lottery with means testing.
There was no commentary regarding preventative support yet It's widely acknowledged that early investment can pay dividends longer term.
Alzheimer's is a growing problem and even more so, dementia. Although it's too early to comment on the impact that drugs may have, I would have liked to see some strategy about how he plans to care for those whom drugs would have little or no impact.
Editors' notes:
Claimar provide approx. 70,000 hours of care per week across 43 local authorities
They have approx. 6,000 service users, ages range from 4 to 108 years old
They have approx. 2,100 staff
Mark Hales is available for interview.
Here's a link to the transcript of the speech
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