THE ageing population in London faces serious shortcomings in care services, an important study has found.
High property and land prices in the capital have created a shortage of affordable care-home places so that many older people have little or no choice about the care that they receive.
Londoners are more likely to have to take up a care-home place outside their own area and, in many cases, outside London, according to the study by the Kings’ Fund, an independent health think tank.
The report, entitled The Business of Caring, also gives warning that care home residents’ lives are being put at risk by untrained and unqualified staff and that, unless urgent action was taken, even more older people would suffer from poor care in 20 years’ time. The report makes 30 recommendations for action and calls for greater investment of resources in older people’s care.
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A separate report, called We Care — Do You?, published today by Sheffield Hallam University, found that one in ten working men and one in seven working women provide unpaid care. It cautions of an impending shortage of unpaid carers.