“What’s needed now is a critical grilling of the role of the Scottish Government in the care home disaster. Without great public pressure, fed by the voices of those harmed by the crisis, that will be a long time coming.”
Care homes
“We need to re-enable families to look after older people where they so wish and address the income and housing issues that currently prevent this.”
Nick Kempe: Hostages to Covid –the rights of care home residents and their relatives
“As the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths thankfully drop, it is more important than ever that pressure is kept on government to account for what has gone wrong and use this to inform a proper plan to protect older and other vulnerable people should Covid-19 return.”
Nick Kempe: There is no sign the Scottish Government has learnt from the care sector’s lack of preparation for a pandemic
“The failure is with our centralised, under-resourced and bureaucratised systems that did not prepare properly for a pandemic and don’t have the flexibility to respond to the Covid-19 crisis as a crisis – a system that keeps the people responsible for regulation distanced from what they are supposed to be regulating.”
Nick Kempe: The care home crisis begs the question – what is the Care Inspectorate for?
“A bottom up review of the care home system would enable the workforce to help re-design a system that depends on them.”
Nick Kempe: The Scottish Government should put older people, their families and care staff at the heart of the care system
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman is set to take questions today from MSPs on the care homes crisis, the eye of the Covid-19 storm in Scotland. Yesterday’s weekly National Records of Scotland statistics revealed that there are now more deaths in care homes than the rest of Scotland combined, a tragic outcome three months into a […]
Care Homes crisis: 4 questions for the Health Secretary
“The immediate need is that the Scottish Government learns from mistakes that have probably cost hundreds of lives. This is not an argument that the Scottish Government has done better or worse than other governments, but simply that they need to be open about what has gone wrong, consult and act.”
Nick Kempe: Isolation, human rights and keeping older people safe in care homes
“Accepting Jeanne Freeman at her word, why didn’t she realise what anyone working at the coalface in the sector could have told her – that discharging any infected person from hospital to a care home could have disastrous consequences?”
Nick Kempe: Scottish Government response to care home crisis proves why older people need a voice
“The ongoing pandemic has made certain questions unavoidable. What right to care does a citizen enjoy, and what role should the state take in securing those rights?”
Problems facing Scotland’s care homes will outlast Covid-19 unless major change is made
Common Weal today publishes a very important report on the Care Homes crisis written by Nick Kempe, former Head of Service for Older People in Glasgow. The report can be read here, and is worth taking the time to go through carefully. A full analysis will appear on Source later. Here, I will only focus on one aspect […]