Frail elderly people in North Wales are being forced out of their communities because of a stand-off over funding their care.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the warning from Kevin Edwards, managing director at the Meddyg Care Group, who says Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) is refusing to cover the true cost of\u00a0the services\u00a0provided at his care homes in Porthmadog and Criccieth.<\/p>\n
Mr Edwards says because he\u00a0won\u2019t accept the fee BCUHB is offering, the health board is not recommending relatives send their loved ones to his homes.<\/p>\n
As a result, he says, people needing to go into a care home could end up going to homes miles away from their family,\u00a0friends and neighbours.<\/p>\n
In a bid to find a way forward, Mr Edwards is urging BCUHB to adopt a nationally recognised toolkit for care funding called\u00a0CareCubed,\u00a0which is\u00a0used by councils\u00a0and\u00a0takes into account\u00a0the\u00a0true\u00a0cost\u00a0of care\u00a0in individual homes.<\/p>\n
Mr Edwards said his local authority, Gwynedd Council, used the\u00a0CareCubed\u00a0software to set their\u00a0care fees, and he was puzzled why BCUHB\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0do the same\u00a0when they set\u00a0their\u00a0new fees.<\/p>\n
Mr Edwards said: \u201cCareCubed\u00a0provides\u00a0wholly transparent\u00a0costings,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a totally open\u00a0book.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe issue we have with BCUHB is they are not using any formally recognised costing toolkit, and\u00a0that\u2019s a fundamental issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause we won\u2019t\u00a0accept their base cost, they are not recommending our homes to\u00a0the families of Gwynedd.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are saying to the families \u2018go and find\u00a0a home which does accept our fee\u2019 – and that home could be 60 miles away from where their loved one lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Edwards said the difference cares homes in rural Gwynedd needed, and the fee the health board was willing to pay, was between \u00a340 and \u00a380 per week for each resident.<\/p>\n
He said: “The point is, NHS care should be free to people who need it in their local area, but people are being forced to go out of area because homes in rural Gwynedd will not accept the basic fee BCUHB are prepared to pay.<\/p>\n
\u201cBCUHB are not giving families their first choice of local nursing home and they are forcing them to go further afield.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are basically forcing people in the final years of their lives away from their families and out of their communities, all because of, potentially, \u00a340 a week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Edwards said it was important residents who needed to go into care homes were housed as closely as possible to the communities they lived in.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThey need to be with their friends, in their local community.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, we provide care through the medium of Welsh but if people go to a home further away, that might not be the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it makes it more difficult if they are further away for relatives, friends\u00a0and neighbours to\u00a0drop in\u00a0and see them.We want local people to stay in their local community.”<\/p>\n
Mr Edwards added: \u201cBCUHB do the costings on their fee, in my view, on the back of a\u00a0fag\u00a0packet.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t\u00a0seem to\u00a0matter if my home is in\u00a0Porthmadog\u00a0and my cost base, because of the rural setting, is significantly more expensive to run –\u00a0we still\u00a0have to\u00a0accept this base fee.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, how can our costs in a rural setting be the same as a home in an urban setting, somewhere in the middle of Rhyl, Llandudno, or Wrexham for instance?<\/p>\n
\u201cOur recruitment issues for example are wildly more challenging than at those other homes, so our costs are more, and that\u2019s\u00a0why our home are more expensive to run.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne size does not fit all, unfortunately.<\/p>\n
Mario Kreft MBE,\u00a0chair of social care champions Care Forum Wales, said it was vital to allow residents to live in care homes in their own communities.<\/p>\n
He called for the health board to adopt a properly recognised methodology to determine fees.<\/p>\n
Mr Kreft said: \u201cOne of the most important things for families is the location of the home where their loved ones will be living.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vast majority of people choose a care home in a community where they want to be in, it\u2019s so important.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis issue highlights what we are facing in North Wales, and\u00a0that\u2019s a health board which has been promising methodology for more than a decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should be meeting government guidance on this, and\u00a0it\u2019s outrageous that they are not.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s causing further anxiety to future residents and their families, it\u2019s delaying discharges from\u00a0hospitals and it is seeing people being taken to parts of the country they don\u2019t want to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Kreft said the issue also highlighted a north\/south divide in Wales\u00a0regarding funding for social care.<\/p>\n
He said fees paid by authorities in South Wales were\u00a0higher than what authorities in North Wales provided.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWhat is it about North Wales that people are treated as second class by the health board?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe health board is there to care for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we still have a situation in North Wales where a health board is behaving out of step with South East Wales for example.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically the health board here wants the standards that Cardiff pays for, but they don\u2019t want to pay what Cardiff pays.\u201d<\/p>\n