Duncan Smith blames Labour for reduction in beds
Iain Duncan Smith has blamed the reduction in the number of care home beds on Labour Party mismanagement, and made long term care for the elderly one of his 'personal priorities.'
During a recent Conservative Party policy review of long term care, the Tory leader said: 'A combination of ineptitude and mismanagement has seen the closure of almost 50,000 care home beds since 1997. At any one time, over 6,000 hospital beds are occupied by patients whose discharge has been delayed.' He added that a thriving care home sector was, 'pivotal to the overall wellbeing of the health service.'
However, Sandy Johnstone, long term care strategy manager at Norwich Union Life, believes Duncan Smith has not stated the full position. He acknowledged that the amounts authorities have been willing to pay nursing homes have been set at levels that make it difficult for them to survive, but said other, more positive factors have also reduced the number of care beds available.
He said: 'There is a preference for people to stay in their own homes, rather than go into a nursing home. Government policy through the NHS Care and Community Act, introduced by the Conservatives, has been introduced to make it easier for people to stay at home, so it should come as no surprise that the number of nursing home beds has been shrinking.'
Johnstone pointed out that long term care insurance would generally provide for people to stay at home, but added that the dwindling supply of beds in the care home sector was not yet a problem.
He said: 'At the top end of the market the number of beds has not really changed and as a holder of long term care insurance there would not be any difficulty at present in finding a place.'
Duncan Smith claimed Labour would never introduce reform due to its deep-rooted antipathy towards private providers.
He said: 'They talk about working with the private sector, but here is an area in which there is a long-standing relationship between the public and private sectors and the Government is making a mess of it. '
