Monthly Archives: July 2013
“Too big to fail”? Care home closures and the price of market failure
By the Centre for Health and the Public Interest, 15th July 2013
The real human costs of market failure and care home closure for the residents and their families
As the Competition Commission points out in the guidance which it is uses when conducting a market investigation, truly effective markets are characterised by ‘uncertainty, turbulence and change’.
And nowhere has market turbulence been more keenly felt than in the care home sector for older people, which has been subject to the vicissitudes of the market for the past 20 years. Most recently, the care home chain Southern Cross went into administration as a result of an unsustainable debt financing model. As the care homes owned by Southern Cross were looking after 31, 000 people, the government was faced with the prospect that nearly 9% of all the available care beds in England would disappear in one fell swoop.
Aberdeen firm unveils wheelchair-friendly cars
AN Aberdeen-based car club today launched the UK’s first wheelchair adapted vehicle for street hires by the public.
The new service, launched by Aberdeen’s Co-Wheels car club, will provide a car, accessible to wheelchair users, that can be hired by their carers or family on a pay-as-you-go basis.
A club spokeswoman explained: “The new service will remove the need to own such a vehicle for what maybe infrequent use. Many elderly people confined to wheelchairs are unable to get out from their care homes simply because they and their family do not have access to such a vehicle.
