Week 7, article #2 (SPEAKER'S CORNER)

Title: Thousands of elderly people are in substandard care homes

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8570260/Thousands-of-elderly-people-are-in-substandard-care-homes.html

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Summary of article

There are a lot of care homes for old and disabled people in Britain and you’d think that’s good. Only in more than 1800 of these homes, the care they provide isn’t decent. “Campaigners said elderly people were being left in conditions which would not befit a dog” (article) Things like ensuring medicines are administered safely or giving the right food to people are often absent from the care homes. One out of ten care homes are not meeting the standards set for them. They are supposed to give evidence they do, but most neglect to do so. There was a check earlier this year at hundreds of care homes. See below for the result.

“The figures, which cover the nine months ending last month, show that 1668 homes did not meet standards for respecting and involving people who use services, while 1625 did not meet their nutritional needs, 1819 did not safeguard service users from abuse, and 1,800 did not manage medicines safely.”

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My opinion

It's horrible to know that supposed care homes for the elderly aren't caring for old people at all. All they seem to be doing is making the elderly die sooner than they would, had they had good care. And this isn't about a few hundred care homes either, it's about roughly 2000 homes! This is very shocking and I believe that regulators and inspectors should do something about this. Maybe fine the care homes or install a star rating system for care homes, same as we currently have with restaurants and hotels.