MOSCOW (Sputnik), Anastasia Levchenko — By putting elderly and disabled people out to tender to so that care firms can bid to offer them a bed, Birmingham authorities undermine the standards of care and deprive the aged of the right to choose, the head of the Moundsley Healthcare Group told Sputnik Monday.
Birmingham City Council is among other local authorities in Britain that use an on-line auction system to select care companies for elderly individuals.
"In 92 percent of all cases the placements went to the lowest bidder. So yes, it saves money, but the [care] homes that are getting the placements are usually… rated poor by Birmingham Social Services themselves, so in effect they are promoting poor care for our elderly. Expenditure has been reduced in Birmingham by 33 percent, but safeguarding issues have gone through the roof. It is effective in saving money but its driving good homes who are fully CQC [Care Quality Commission] compliant out of business," Mike Gimson, chairman of Moundsley Healthcare Group, a care provider situated in Birmingham, told Sputnik.
The circulation of personal data related to the elderly individuals in need of care by social services to care homes has raised privacy concerns among their families.
"Sometimes we get two lines with very little information but other times we get very detailed information which could be used to identify the individuals but no names are actually given," Gimson explained.
The situation with care for the elderly is becoming more and more acute in Birmingham, with the number of people needing placement in a care home on the rise.
"We here in Birmingham are on collision course for disaster unless there is a radical re-think and re-structure at the highest levels in Birmingham Social Services," Gimson told Sputnik.
Possible solutions to the current problem may be cooperation between the National Health Service and social services, as well as person-centered planning, according to the Moundsley Healthcare Group head.
"The system in its current state is 'broken', and our elderly are suffering these are people who have fought in world wars so that we may enjoy the freedom of our country today and we repay them by failing in our statutory duties," Gimson concluded.
The auction-style system operates by providing a description of the care needs of the individual in need of a placement to as many as 100 care providers, some of which are then included on a shortlist. Care companies participating in the tender must state which services they can offer and at what cost. As BBC 5 Live revealed, 92 percent of contracts awarded over a six-month period went to bidders with the lowest price.
