Don’t argue with us, or we’ll stop sending you patients
Speaking to elderly care providers has become an increasingly depressing way for HBI journalists to spend their time – with a few notable and perennially optimistic exceptions.
Click here to see our reports on nursing homes, by country, in HBI Intelligence.
Aside from the ongoing high-profile scandals (France, we are looking at you) one cannot ignore the continuing financial burden caused by an ageing population with increasingly medicalised needs coming up against ever-tightening public purses, all set against a backdrop of inflation and the threat of recession. Something has to give. At the moment, it’s the price paid to operators for caring for society’s most vulnerable.
So what happens when an operator says “enough is enough” and draws a line in the sand? When it demands fair pay, and justifies (objectively) why?
In short, it loses. As HBI Deals + Insights members can read elsewhere in this edition, the plug is pulled and the patient pipeline tap is turned off.
Take the UK. It doesn’t seem to matter – because funding is siloed – that without the release valve of care homes, patients/residents languish in the purgatory of an underfunded hospital ward (if they are lucky) or corridor. Because that’s someone else’s problem (at least in the UK where our operator source is from).
The power, currently, lies completely with the payors. But if the current system continues, that may change. Basic supply and demand require it.
Because here at HBI we have spoken recently to a number of operators who tell us that they aren’t sure the current rates of pay are worth it, certainly in the UK. Businesses may fold, voluntarily or otherwise. And that has the potential to create an almighty supply issue which will enable beleaguered operators to, for once, up their prices without being undercut by rivals in a race to the bottom which is where, HBI hears, many currently find themselves.
There’s no point in winning the battle to pay operators less for care, if the war to actually look after the most vulnerable in society is lost as a result.
We would welcome your thoughts on this story. Email your views to David Farbrother or call 0207 183 3779.
