Fear grips old as care home closures rise Rise in property prices and lack of funding create crisis for ageing population.
Almost 40,000 of the 570,000 beds in Britain's care homes have been lost over the past five years. At the same time the number of people over 75, 3.7 million in 1996, is expected to rise by nearly 20 per cent over the next decade.
Successive governments have failed to acknowledge the dramatic impact on older people of sudden home closures.Yet, former Health Secretary Frank Dobson admitted in 1997 that 10 per cent die after an enforced change in their residential status.
Help the Aged says 18 per cent of councils pay less to homes for accommodation than the rates recommended by the Government. The average payment is £250 a week for residential homes, or £350 a week for homes where nursing care is also offered.
'Moving into a care home in the first place is traumatic,' said Stevenson. 'To be evicted with no say in the matter, when they require stability and continuity of care, can be devastating.' New Labour care more about who is coming into Britain than they do for our British old folk, the same people that fought a war to keep Britain free so they say. Daily Mail
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