We were all deeply shocked by recent television images of thugs masquerading as care workers abusing elderly people at a Bristol residential hospital.
We are all also deeply concerned about the current fate of residents in the failing Southern Cross company's 750 homes which provide shelter for 31,000 of the 200,000 elderly people in residential care. Nearly 2,000 of these people are in the North East.
I used to be a carer for the elderly and closely follow the industry. It doesn't surprise me that we have reached this situation because over the past 25 years care provision has moved away from councils, where there was full accountability, to the private sector.
The system was set up with equity deals in the same way as a company selling cars. But that doesn't work with human beings. If a garage goes bust, you don't get your car, but if a care home goes bust some poor soul ends up dead.
There are immediate measures needed to massively improve regulation and to ensure that those who blow the whistle are listened to.
But we also need long-term thinking about how as a society we look after elderly people. The scale of such care will increase thanks to continuing success in lifting life expectancy.
There are currently about 5 million over 75s but this may increase to 9 million in a generation. One million of us may be in such homes in forty years time.
The well-being of so many people cannot simply be left to chance. We need a plan. An independent commission is due to report later this year. My belief is that care should be treated as an integral part of the NHS and funded in the same way.
We should also remember that many thousands of people give unpaid care for frail family members and friends. Their efforts save about £120 billion a year and part of any new deal for the elderly must find ways of tapping this more fairly.
This is all far too important for party politics and I am pleased that my party will work with all others to devise a fair system.
Newcastle Chronicle and Journal
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