A pause for thought
Amidst the current and justifiable concerns over the plight of Coronavirus safety in care homes for the elderly – and this may not be a popular aspect to mention – there are care homes … and there are private care homes.
This not a tilt at those who work in care homes because invariably in my personal experience those who work in them, or indeed in private houses where live-in caring is required – often of ethnic minority, European and/or or immigrant extraction – have been uniformly polite, dedicated and caring individuals to a degree that would amply justify them being included in the weekly Thursday night public salute to those in the NHS and caring sectors.
However.
Here are three examples of personal experience of private care homes that I have come across. I am not seeking to make a party political or anti-anything or anybody point. I’m just recording the facts as I know them.
EXAMPLE ONE
In the late 1990s I was involved in the management buy-out of a company that involved investment by a venture capital organisation – a species known for tough practices (a pal who had previous experience of them warned me and my group of executives “Remember that all venture capitalists are sharks”). It certainly proved so in our case.
At one point during said project we had implanted in our set-up a series of individual accountants hired by our venture capitalists to “keep any eye” upon our accounting procedures and practices.
The most accommodating and friendly of these was an easy-going Asian guy in his early thirties. He always turned out in a sharp suit and swiftly acquainted himself with both the way we went about our business and the peculiarities of the entertainment business, some of which would make any standard corporate-type accountant’s eyes water and/or cause him to turn to drink.
One day he and I grabbed some sandwiches and had lunch together in my office. We got chatting about him, his family and his life plan.
During our discussion he told me that he was currently negotiating to buy his second care home.
Without putting too fine a point on it, he effectively told me that private care homes were a gold mine – I think the phrase “money for old rope” came into it.
The fixed costs were one thing, but once you’d taken care of them and satisfied all the healthcare and safety requirements, it was just a case of counting the money which was coming in over the gunwales of your proverbial boat almost faster than you could catch it.
Hence his decision, only about a year after buying his first one, to now buying his second.
EXAMPLE(S) TWO
My own mother, a dementia suffering, ended her days in a secure private care home in the south of England thirteen years ago.
No complaints at all about the way she was cared for in it – the staff were great. I would never let anyone suggest to me that caring for the elderly is a cushy job. It is hard graft all the way, not least because each resident – whatever stage they are at – require individual and loving attention.
My mother was in this care home for just under four years in total – the cost of her being there was approximately £3,000 per month. I should estimate that the number of residents there at any one time was 25 to 30.
Last year my father, who was cared for at home towards the end of his life, had to spend seven weeks for ‘temporary respite’ purposes in a private care home on the outskirts of London. The going rate for his stay there was £1,800 plus VAT per week.
EXAMPLE THREE
At the beginning of this year a former housekeeper to my father took up a job at a well-known private care home in neighbouring village. She had to undergo a stringent training course before she was let loose on the residents.
She does a single 12-hour shift on a Saturday night into Sunday morning with one half-hour break for a meal/rest.
Guess how much she earns? £10 per hour.
