THE failure of one particular care home to properly investigate bruising of very frail people at a highly vulnerable time of their lives, is one of a continuing series (locally and nationally) of findings connected to both the care of people both in residential establishments and in their own homes.
The underlying causes are the drastic underfunding of social care, the fragmentation and privatisation of the system, and the absence of adequate monitoring of what is going on.
The people who suffer these harms are those most unable to protect themselves or to speak up. We are told that we can’t have decent services because there isn’t enough money.
But there seems to be endless money to support tax breaks for the rich, bankers’ bonuses, and missiles to protect the Olympics.
People in their own homes at the ends of their lives can be allocated 15 minutes care twice a day, with extremely low-paid workers struggling to fit the care needed into the time allowed, and often working unpaid overtime out of sense of decency and humanity, whilst large providers cream off the profits. Surely now is the time to change this absurd set of priorities!
Cllr LARRY SANDERS, Green Group, Oxfordshire County Council
SUSHILA DHALL, Chair, Oxfordshire Green Party, Bedford Street, Oxford
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