Families looking for a care home face lack of choice

Families looking for a care home for their relative are finding there is a distinct lack of choice, according to a new survey.

New research by Which? revealed that 48 per cent of people who had arranged care for themselves or a relative or friend said there weren’t any places in at least one of the local care homes they considered.

Half of those who need a care place are also having to wait for a bed and almost one in five people said they had settled for a care home that they had reservations about.

Alex Hayman, Which? managing director of public markets, said: “Making the decision to move a loved one into a care home is difficult enough, so it is unacceptable that so many families are left feeling guilty or concerned about the choices they have made, simply because there is no choice.”

He called for The Competition and Markets Authority to investigate “the huge local disparities in care home provision, which are fast reaching crisis point”.

The research also found that 16 per cent of people were forced to move to a care home away from friends and family.

Eighty-six-year-old Fred Horley, 86, from Devon, revealed how he struggled to find good care for his wife Joan, 83, who has since passed away.

He says her poor experience of care has left him worried about his future. “Joan’s experience was far from satisfactory. At times, my wife was left for up to an hour after activating an emergency alarm before any help came. One time, she laid on the floor in the dark shouting for help.

“My wife’s experience has opened my eyes to what could happen to me when I’m in care. But good-quality care homes where I live are difficult to come by, expensive and have few vacancies.”

Dominic Carter, senior policy officer at Alzheimer’s Society said that the "findings echo what we hear every day through our helpline – time and again we are called by families of people with dementia who’ve been refused places at care homes because their needs are ‘too complex’."

He added: “Even worse, we hear of people with dementia in care homes handed four-week eviction notices – one woman told us her husband was shown the door after seven weeks at a care home because he was viewed as 'challenging and the manager did not have enough staff available to provide the one-to-one support he needed’.

“While it could be easy to scapegoat care homes, we know they are finding themselves between a rock and a hard place. They can’t sustain their businesses if local authorities don’t have big enough budgets to cover the care home’s costs. The only way to give people with dementia the care, security and reassurance they deserve is for the Government to inject more money into social care.”

The research by Which? is backed up by a recent report by Care Quality Commission which found the care system is ‘straining at the seams’ as the number of beds in nursing homes across England is decreasing.

You can search for a care home and look for reviews on the best care home for you by going to the leading care home reviews site at www.carehome.co.uk/