Care charges may rise to ease £4m overspend (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Care charges may rise to ease £4m overspend

CLOSING hospital beds and treating more people in their own homes is leading to a cash crisis at Wiltshire County Council.

The crisis is so bad that the council's department for adult and community services is predicting a potential overspend this year of £4million.

To try to stave off this overspend the council is being recommended to increase charges for some services, including home care and for those with disabilities, and cut back on the level of care provided to some people.

Treating people in their own homes who would previously have gone into hospital along with closing community hospital beds is a policy that has been introduced in the past few years in Wiltshire.

Health chiefs have defended the move saying that patients prefer to be at home rather than in a hospital but critics have said it puts the onus on family members to care for the patients, saving the NHS money.

Even more people are set to be treated in their own homes with the impending closure of Bradford on Avon Hospital. Other community hospitals could close as the debt ridden Kennet and North Wiltshire and West Wiltshire Primary Care Trusts look to save £32million between them.

The county council is responsible for providing social care to people living in their own homes.

Dr Ray Jones, director of the council's adult and community services, says in a report to the council's Cabinet that in the past two years 43 beds have closed in community hospitals in Kennet, North and West Wiltshire.

Dr Jones told the Gazette: "The savings having to be made in the NHS in Wiltshire and which are having to be made very quickly are having quite a significant knock on impact on the services for the county council for which we have never been given the funding by Government."

Dr Jones also said more people needing care at home had more complex needs than previously, which increased the cost.

He also said the cost to the council of buying services from private care agencies and care homes had increased beyond inflation, which was also part of the predicted overspend.

The proposals Dr Jones has drawn up that will be considered by the council's Cabinet tomorrow include:

Increasing the amount charged for home care for adults with a higher income to £15.20 an hour, up from £8.25 an hour. This will affect more than 100 people receiving home care.

Increasing the charge for meals on wheels from £2.30 to £3.50 or £4.50.

Waiting for two people to leave a care home before admitting someone into a care home. This is likely to lead to an increase on the council's waiting list of 61 people. If approved, this would be reviewed in three months.

Increasing the cost of transporting adults to day centres to £2.65 a day, an increase of 50p.

Shutting kitchens at day centres including Middlefield in Chippenham. The council says the majority of the nine people employed in the kitchens would be redeployed but there may be some redundancies.

Roger Davey of the health union Unison said: "This demonstrates that the community can't afford community hospital beds to close. There's not the money to provide care in the community."