Elderly Care - A Plan for Inaction?

Elderly Care Reform or Empty Promises?

Andy Burnham, Health Secretary, is doing the media rounds telling us the bleeding obvious; that care for the elderly is naff, has always been naff, and in the medium term looks like it will remain naff. That the care for the elderly will become an increasing burden on the state and we (the Government) are now going to do something about it.

In the meantime, those with houses to sell or assets of more than £23,000 can pay for their own care as the state is only concerned with the "vulnerable" and of course the definition of vulnerable in political terms often has a variable definition depending upon what grants and hand-outs are available and to whom. But such is the support from the state that you can only expect a means-tested basic level of care from a privatised care system likely to have been awarded its contract on the lowest bid in a so-called reverse auction.

And to show that Government means business (this time) it has published a Green Paper on Social Care entitled, The Case For Change. That´s a nice snappy title with a positive action word don't you think?

But haven´t we seen and heard this before? Haven´t we had previous reviews and even a Royal Review in 1999 when specific recommendations were put forward - none (or little) of which were ever implemented.

Is it the case where the best decision to do something, was to do nothing. The probable truth is that Government is unwilling to make any financial committments which takes it beyond a parliamentary term, and more so now that the treasury coffers are empty as a result of bailing out the banks to an eye-watering amount almost equal to the UK´s gross domestic product.

And on the basis that talk is cheap, the Government and its bureaucratic offshoots are on another mission to convince the electorate that they are concerned and responding to the issue - as they did 10 years ago.

We await the outcome...