NPC to hold emergency debate on the crisis in the care sector and the impact of Covid-19
The event can be live streamed from the NPC YouTube channel
The National Pensioners’ Convention is inviting health and care leaders and politicians to an emergency webinar summit on the crisis in the country’s care system on Older People’s Day (1st October 2020, 11.30am).
The UK’s largest campaigning organisation for retired people is concerned that reform of the ailing and disjointed care sector is being put on the back burner despite fresh demands on the system from the new spike in Covid-19.
The NPC fears the government’s decision to delay promised reform of the sector until next year will lead to even more of the UK’s oldest and most vulnerable losing their lives, and causing heartbreak to even more families.
The OP Day online event – Goodbye Cinderella: Time for A New Settlement for Care Services - will be led by a panel including NPC General Secretary Jan Shortt, Professor David Oliver, Consultant Gerontologist and Visiting Fellow at the King’s Fund, and Dr Jean Hardiman-Smith, Chair of the NPC Health and Social Care Committee.
The webinar will also be attended by senior care sector stakeholders, policymakers and politicians in front of an online audience of NPC members watching via a live feed on YouTube.
Jan Shortt, NPC General Secretary said: “The NPC has called this emergency webinar summit to highlight the scandalous neglect of the UK’s care system, and to discuss a viable alternative – the establishment of a National Care Service, free at the point of need for all like the NHS.
“Tragically in 2020, NPC members worst fears about the impact on older people of the ongoing neglect, lack of investment and increasing privatisation of the UK’s care sector were realised when Covid-19 raged through our care homes.
“The tragic deaths of tens of thousands of older people, shortages of protective equipment; issuing of Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) letters and the distress experienced by the care sector staff during this awful pandemic are well documented. As the country faces a second spike of the pandemic, it is clear the care sector desperately needs urgent reform, yet the Government has delayed its promise of change until next year.
“While the government have promised to invest hundreds of millions in the sector and make PPE free to all care homes until March, we seriously worry this is still not going to be enough to save lives, and the heartbreak of even more families this winter. The system is broken beyond repair”
The webinar will discuss the NPC’s report, Goodbye Cinderella: A New Settlement for Care Services: Moving On From the Pandemic,’ produced by a working party of health and care experts chaired by Dr Jean Hardiman-Smith, with an introduction by Professor David Oliver. The report calls for fundamental change now and provides a roadmap for creating a world-class National Care Service fit for one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
Confirmed participants to-date for the NPC webinar on 1st October, 2020 include:
Nadra Ahmed OBE, Chair, National Care Association; Dr Crystal Oldman CBE, Chief Executive, Queen’s Nursing Institute; Sharon Hodgson MP, Shadow Minister for Veterans; Professor Dame June Clark, Professor Emeritus of Community Nursing, Swansea University and Board Member RCN Wales; Mary Robertson, Senior Policy Officer, TUC; Councillor Karen Kilgour, Cabinet Member for Adult Services, Newcastle City Council; Baroness Sally Greengross OBE, co-chair All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Dementia, Corporate Social Responsibility, Intergenerational Futures, Continence Care and Ageing and Older People; and Dr Arun Baksi, Emeritus Consultant Physician, St Mary's Hospital, Isle of Wight.
ENDS