North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has raised concerns with the Health Minister that care homes in North Wales have still not received the funding needed to help them deal with Covid-19.
Early last month, Mr Isherwood raised concerns with the Minister for Health and Social Services that Nursing Care Homes in North Wales are disadvantaged by comparison with elsewhere when it comes to Continuing Healthcare (CHC) funding by Health Boards, and called for them to be treated fairly.
It was subsequently also revealed that five North Wales Local Authorities were being presented with ‘Cheapskate Awards’ for paying amongst the lowest care home fees in Wales amid the coronavirus crisis.
Taking part in this week’s ‘hybrid’ Plenary meeting of the Welsh Parliament, he raised the matter again with the Health Minister, expressing concern that healthcare funding for care homes in North Wales has still not been announced.
Speaking via ‘Zoom’ from his home in North Wales, he said:
“Testing in Care Homes in Wales came too late for too many, and its effectiveness as a tool in the toolbox requires Care Homes to be operating on a sustainably resourced basis.
“Speaking in the virtual Welsh Parliament on 3 June, I referred to a Nursing Home which wrote stating that 5 residents had suffered COVID-19 related deaths and that ‘Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board have so far contributed not a single penny towards the COVID-19 crisis’ - compounding the problem identified in the subsequent Care Forum Wales ‘Cheapskate Awards’, where half of the bottom 10 Local Authorities in Wales for paying care home fees amid the coronavirus crisis are in North Wales, with Flintshire the worst of these, ranking 17th out of 21 ranked Councils.
“Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board said in correspondence on 15th June that ‘the health board is working closely with Care Forum Wales and other health boards across Wales to work with Welsh Government in securing a financial support plan for nursing care and care homes across Wales’.
“But Care Forum Wales e-mailed me a week ago, last Wednesday, saying 'Still no announcement, to our ever-increasing frustration.'
“When are you going to get this sorted, because the Care Homes are telling me they need this desperately?”
Responding to the points raised, the Health Minister said “I simply don’t accept it's an accurate reflection that there is no conversation with the residential care sector” and “I think the Cheapskate Awards were not Care Forum Wales's finest hour and not a helpful way to make use of the relationships we've deliberately built in Wales”.
He added: “I don't accept it's been too late for too many in the way we've acted. We'll see the evidence, and I will have to take account of the evidence, once it's there, about the impact on that sector, about the choices we've made and what that's meant in terms of helping to save lives.”
Speaking afterwards, Mr Isherwood added: "As I said to this Health Minister on 3rd June, six weeks ago, although Continuing Healthcare funded Care Home residents have more complex needs, there has been no mention of an up-lift related to COVID-19. Now, six weeks later, he is still talking about conversations and payback, rather than a long overdue and desperately needed financial support plan