Clause 2

Part of Health and Social Care Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 11:15 am on 15 January 2008.

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Photo of Angela Browning Angela Browning Deputy Chairman, The Conservative Party 11:15, 15 January 2008

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr. Conway. We have something in common—the occasional senior moment.

The Minister’s remarks focused on the NHS, but social and, particularly, residential care are within the scope of the Bill. I am concerned about that focus, because a big problem in residential care is that it is common practice for many people who require residential care to be placed by social services in homes that are really suitable only for residential, as opposed to nursing, care. Nursing patients are often placed in residential care homes purely on the ground of cost. Many private residential care homes have reluctantly taken such patients because their arms have been twisted by social services departments, which then pay a residential rate for what is ostensibly nursing care. One difficulty, which is being reversed by the closure of many private homes, has been that residential homes have reluctantly taken such people purely to fill their beds. The economics are somewhat questionable for them, and it is surely not acceptable for the resident. That is a different matter from the Minister’s points about the NHS.