I would like to raise the point about the recent terrific increases in energy and food bills and the impact they will have on Care Homes in the High Peak, as they must surely be a major part of their costs. Fees rose by 6.5% in April, and I am frightened as to how much they might rise next April. My mother is in a Care Home in Buxton due to having Alzheimers and needing 24-hour care to keep her safe from wandering, especially at night. She also has physical ailments which need treatment.
The staff at the home administer her medication, apply ointment to a particular sore area and supervise her fully at night. She cannot live anywhere else.
Tom Levitt (in a letter to me) describes the fees that she pays as "hotel costs". I aske
d him to tell me of a hotel that would perform these functions but he did not reply.
The point is that my mother gets no state support other than her pension and attendance allowance, she pays £320 on top of this for her Care Home fees per week, gets no Winter Fuel Allowance any more, no free TV licence, and is likely to have to fund an increase in Care Home fees of well above the rate of inflation next year.
She could live for another 20 years easily. What is the government likely to do to help people in my mother's situation?
She is not regarded as needing nursing care, apparently her requirements do not come into that category – why not?
I do not understand why my mother is having to pay the full fees for care in a pleasant but non-specific care home, of medium standard. She has to be there, the consultant psychiatrist stated it was so, so why is the place not provided for free? She is not a person who just decided she wanted to live in a home, she had no choice.
And with fee increases likely to be around 10% next year, if not more, I think I have to look to the government for help. Which it should do for its old people.
My dad fought during WW2, his widow is now facing an uncertain future based on how long her modest capital will last.
She is not rich, she had a little two-up-two-down house in New Mills and a small amount of savings. It is not right that she should be denied the dignity of a secure home for the rest of her years. When her money runs out, as it is rapidly doing, she will have to move home to one which is fully funded by the state.
I wonder if Mr Levitt has looked at any of those in the High Peak recently – I did suggest to him that he did. He might have a shock.
I feel abandoned, and my father would have been furious with the Labour government that he supported all his life.
Margaret Weaver
via e-mail
The full article contains 510 words and appears in Buxton Advertiser newspaper.
