Majority of care homes cannot get the staff they need 

Scottish Liberal Democrat Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today said only his party have a realistic plan to fix the care crisis as a new report showed most care at home services and care homes are reporting problems filling vacancies.

A new report by the Care Inspectorate and Scottish Social Services Council shows that:

• 70% of care at home services reported problems filling vacancies.
• 69% of care homes for older people reported problems filling vacancies.
• Care vacancies are significantly higher than the national average in East Dunbartonshire, Argyll & Bute, Edinburgh and Highland.

Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

“Care services are stretched to breaking point. Vacancies are rife, meaning more and more demand will simply not be met.

“The SNP government wasted four years and £30 million attempting a bureaucratic takeover of social care that was never going to fix core problems.

“The gaps in care mean almost 2,000 people are stuck in hospital on any given day, despite being well enough to leave. Those delays are costing our NHS £1.2 million a day, ramping up waits at A&E and causing ambulances to stack up outside.

“We need to fix care to fix the NHS, and only the Scottish Liberal Democrats have a realistic plan to do that by introducing a new, UK-wide minimum wage for care workers that is £2 higher than the national minimum wage. You can vote for that plan in May by backing us on your second, peach-coloured ballot paper.”