Growing Old Disgracefully

After a lifetime of hard work many thousands of workers because of ill-health and ageing find themselves reduced to living in a so-called Care Home. 'The Care Quality Commission, which carries out inspections of homes, this week confirmed that in the past three years warnings were issued to 1,200 homes, of which 158 were forced to close. ........ A request to 150 councils revealed officials examined a total of 16,405 cases in the past 12 months, up from 13,880 in the previous year. The number of elderly residents who claim they were abused by care home staff also rose last year to 30,785, or 600 a week.' (Daily Express, 4 May) All sorts of proposals are put forward to deal with the situation but the reality is that the Care Homes are under-staffed and under-funded and are unlikely to be improved inside capitalism. RD