The Open Letter
Accompanied by images of a BBC news article relating to shortages of PPE for care workers – The open letter published on Facebook by a colleague of the Manager stated –
It makes me so angry. No survey was required – every care provider needs PPE equipment. Whatever the ministers say it is not being provided to those that need it. Yes 400 million items may have been distributed – but what use is 300 masks when we do c5,500 visits a week. Why is Government selling its stock back into trade channels. We can only source half the orders we had before the current challenge from our suppliers – no wonder we don’t have enough. Why are we having to pay inflated prices to the trade. No Council pricing model was based on the current prices and volume of PPE equipment that is required today – but none of them are going to pay more. Some have given a vague promise to reimburse costs if they get additional funding from central government – come on Chancellor what about supporting the very people you need by ensuring we are financially stable and properly rewarded. That is not a wish to profiteer – simply a desire to be treated fairly – our costs are increasing dramatically so why should we not be entitled to recover the costs. Whilst I am at it – perhaps we should give all carers the same right to sick pay as the PM and those working for the public sector – why should carers who put themselves potentially in harms way be penalised if they have to take time off work. Many of my carers cannot afford to receive SSP when often their better(?) halves have either been laid off or are on 80% of pay – no council is funding their domiciliary care providers on the basis that nearly half our staff (like the NHS, police and prison service) are off sick on full pay. Indeed they are not funding providers to have the volumes off sick that we are now dealing with. And yes we can recover the first 14 days from Government – but who is paying for the rest?
Some councils continue to insist that carers use the telephone equipment in the client’s houses. Given the obvious risk of virus transfer it beggars belief that they can be so stupid – but of course they could not tell if the carer had spent the correct amount of time in a house and thus reduce the payment on the basis of their one-sided skewed payment mechanisms. 6 minutes you lose – 9 minutes council wins! That also ignores the fact many clients don’t want the carers hanging around in the house given the current situation – but hey-ho lets penalise the carer.
Come on country come on politicians come on councils – you can and must do better. We can bail out banks we can bail out buses we can furlough vast swathes of the country we can underwrite loans to companies that may or may not recover – what about a small contribution to our wonderful carers???
(These images accompanied the post which have all been taken from BBC news website.)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-52173424/coronavirus-it-s-vital-we-have-the-equipment-we-need-say-care-workers
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-52173424/coronavirus-it-s-vital-we-have-the-equipment-we-need-say-care-workers
Carer’s union UNISON has also published findings that carers are being put at un-necessary risk in some cases. click below to read more from UNISON.
Care workers put at risk by lack of face masks and basic safety kit, says UNISON
The original post on Facebook
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