A Highland care home boss says there is a drastic shortage of beds for patients across the region as he warned the crisis is “going to get worse”.
Ron Taylor, who operates 12 facilities across the Highlands, Moray, and Aberdeenshire, signalled the alarm bell in an interview with The Press and Journal.
“It’s an absolute car crash,” he told us.
“The bed availability is just not there.”
Mr Taylor, who owns the Parklands Care Homes group, spoke to the P&J at Eilean Dubh in Fortrose.
26 patients waiting for a room
He said the Black Isle care home currently has 26 elderly patients waiting for a room.
“Over the last 10 years it’s been getting progressively worse,” he said.
“The dial is going one way. We’re living longer.”
Mr Taylor warned the Highland region faces “unique” challenges due to its vast size.
He said some patients have to travel 200 miles just to secure a place in a care home – and warned more help is needed from Holyrood and Westminster.
In 2023, Parklands closed one of its care homes in Ullapool due to the “challenging economic climate”.
“It’s very expensive to run a care home in the Highlands,” he said.
“Each progressive government comes out with fancy statements, but nothing ever materialises.
“There’s only so much we can do with five loaves and three fishes.”
Highland Lib Dem MP Angus MacDonald has publish a report into the social care crisis in the north of Scotland.
It found the number of care homes in the region had fallen by 18% in the past decade.
That’s come despite the population aged over 75 in the Highlands increased by more than 70% between 2001 and 2023.
Mr MacDonald warned this was “unsustainable”.
But the Lib Dem MP, who represents Inverness, Skye, and West Ross-shire, believes he has a solution.
£150 million saving
Mr MacDonald says four new care homes should be built across the Highlands at a cost of £60 million.
Even though that’s a lot of money to spend, he reckons the Scottish Government would save £150 million in the long-run.
“We cannot continue seeing care homes close,” he told the P&J.
Mr MacDonald visited Eilean Dubh, in Fortrose, with Lib Dem leader Ed Davey last Saturday during the party’s Inverness conference.
The P&J also spoke to Kenny Steele, who runs care charity Highland Hospice, during that visit.
He warned too many elderly patients are spending their final days in hospital instead of a more comfortable setting.
“We’re seeing far too many people being cared for in hospital,” he said.
“A lot of that is down to there not being care home provision.
“People get care, but is it the right care?”
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