The care home situation, as I see it
I'm always wary of publishing my political opinions, because that often necessarily involves chiming in on things far outside my fields of expertise, but it's important to use blogs - outside the jurisdiction of 'fact checkers' and their unsolicited interjections - to share our observations, thoughts and feelings about our lives and the world around us.
My partner, very reluctantly, decided to work another fourteen hour shift, for the second time in three days, and with barely enough time to get a proper night's sleep from the last one. I've tried my best to persuade him not to, reminding him that I earn enough for the two of us.
But the immediate problem isn't money. Many people have caught the latest COVID in recent weeks, and that isn't being reported in the news. From what I gather, this particular strain is highly infectious, but nowhere near as dangerous as the common cold.
That virus has always been a political football, the subject of lies, misinformation, manipulation, conspiracy, cover-ups and plain old confusion. Even I struggled to discern fact from misinformation, but I think the general truth is the NHS had been mismanaged for a decade, at least, and the government panicked over data models that were generated by software that, it transpired, produced arbitrary numbers. At the same time, the response to the pandemic was also a huge transfer of wealth from local businesses to multinationals and friends of the political class.
Anyway, all but one member of staff are off at the care home because they caught the latest strain of the virus. For them it's choice between rocking up to the care home with COVID, or phoning in sick and leaving said care home effectively unstaffed, hoping two poor sods would cover for them.
There is a severe shortage of care workers in Britain, and it's been known about for a long while. Apparently there aren't enough people who, for the minumum wage, want to attend to the intimate bathroom needs of care home residents eight hours a day, see them deteriorate and accept the huge amount of liability that comes with the job. Is it worth doing temporary agency work just to get one's foot in the metaphorical door of that line of work? So, most potential and former care workers opt for stacking shelves in Asda, or working behind the bar instead. Same pay, less liability and sometimes better career prospects.
Somehow the shortage of care workers became yesterday's news. The government tried a few half-assed 'solutions', such as a publicised recruitment campaign and apprenticeships to attract young people into that line of work. Every solution except the blindingly obvious: Offering the kind of wages that would make people think it's a worthwhile career option.
Something must be said about the housing situation also, as that's tangentially related. The 'boomer' generation have treated houses as investments instead of homes, thus making home ownership unaffordable for most young people. This is important because, commonly, old people sell their properties and any savings above £30K, to pay for their care, which is partly subsidised by the government. By the time we reach that age, the government will need to fully fund care. That could be a huge problem, if both Labour and the Tories are still committed to Thatcherism then.