Last weekend, Saturday 4th July, our CEO Martin Jones contributed to an editorial in The Daily Telegraph which looked at the impact of the lockdown.
Martin took the opportunity to express his concerns over the significant number of older people either cancelling or deferring care. There is already a large number of people with unmet care needs (projected to hit 1.6m by the end of the year) and Martin is concerned that lockdown will only make this worse.
Many family members have picked up care duties but sometimes without the necessary skills; moving and handling being one. The medical profession has already expressed concerns around people not presenting at hospital with ailments for uncertainties around safety and Martin echoed these concerns.
In conclusion, he said, “What lockdown has made apparent is that successive governments have not prioritised social care. We are finally recognising and challenging this as a nation, as lockdown and the pandemic that led to it has brought the elderly to the forefront of our minds.
“Now is the time to act; we urgently need a greater understanding of the care options available to people and a greater focus on prevention and wellbeing.”