Wales faces 'desperate shortage' of care home beds within the next decade
Report by ITV Wales journalist Joanne Gallacher
A leading pressure group has warned of a "desperate shortage" of care home beds in Wales over the next decade, with the deficit reaching as many as 10,000.
The research by business property adviser Christie & Co has been called "alarming" by Care Forum Wales, who represent care home owners across the country.
Cartref Bryn Yr Eglwys nursing home in Pentrefoelas provides nursing or personal care for up to 30 residents at a time.
Its manager, Meryl Welsby, has worked there for more than 30 years and says the challenges the home is facing are "unprecedented".
She told ITV Wales: "We've got huge recruitment problems. We've got the continuing changes to regulations but the biggest issue we face is funding.
"It's extremely hard and if anyone thinks this is a profit-making business then the hard work will put them off.
"You've got to be coming from a nursing or a care background and you've got to have compassion, not only for your staff but also your residents.
40 elderly care homes in Wales have closed and only four opened between 2020 and 2023, with no new homes opening in North Wales in that time.
Gwynedd and Flintshire county councils have drawn up plans to build new facilities with around 100 beds, which has an estimated cost of more than £250,000 per bed.
Mario Kreft, the chair of Care Forum Wales, said: “The report from Christie & Co paints a bleak picture and illustrates how the existing crisis is going to get even worse, creating a double whammy for our overstretched hospitals which have rows of ambulances queuing outside and patients on trolleys in corridors...
“The way care homes are funded in Wales is a total postcode lottery with 29 variations on a theme, with most of social care being commissioned by the 22 local authorities and seven health boards.
He continued: “The fundamental issue threatening the viability of care homes is the unrealistically low fees that the vast majority of councils and health boards pay, fees that come nowhere near covering the true cost of providing care."
Mr Kreft said that it would "make a lot more sense" to try to keep existing care homes financially secure instead of relying on building enough new ones to meet increasing demands for social care.
He added: “The problems we have in social care lead to the pressures in the NHS which lead of course then to extra costs being placed on the NHS which would largely be alleviated if local authorities had a more enlightened approach to social care.
“The families of those people, who will often be expected to make up the difference, need to ask why and quite frankly, it is a bridge too far.
“This is undoubtedly a stealth tax on families and quite frankly, the people making these decisions in those authorities should be utterly ashamed of themselves in the way they are betraying vulnerable people including those with profound dementia and their families," Mr Kreft said.
“What this demonstrates is that there is an urgent need for us to look again at the way social care is funded.
“We need a national approach to eliminate this iniquitous postcode lottery so that the people for whom we provide care and our staff are treated fairly.
”This is too important to be left to local authorities and health boards alone – it has to be driven by the Welsh Government.”
A Welsh Government spokesperson said the commissioning of care home beds "is a matter for local authorities and health boards."
They continued: "This includes assessing, planning, and commissioning services to meet local need, and where necessary pooling funds to ensure best use of resources.
We are working to strengthen these regional partnership through new legislation and guidance, including a new National Framework for the Commissioning of Care and Support.”
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