A Heavy Heart and a Soap Box
This day was a monumental day for all the wrong reasons seeing the future funding of social care cut in the UK.
Even more cuts to social care in an ageing County.
Devon’s population of over 65’s is 21.3%. Doesn’t sound many but it’s 31.5% over the national average. Over 85-year-olds make up 3.2% of the population, the rest of the UK have 2.2%. Bored of stats? Me too!
I am a people person, and what I am seeing on a day to day basis and what I have observed over many years now is just how the county has changed. My home town of Exmouth where I have lived for 30 years, just this month, we have learned that we are to lose our “out of hours” G.P. service and potentially lose beds in the one remaining wards at the hospital.
The hospital is stretched to capacity.I have helped patients take a drink. The nurses do the amazing job they do with the demands of a full ward of elderly, in some cases, these have complex needs and many with dementia, “the elephant in the room”. I was only a visitor, not a volunteer.
Our paramedics and ambulance service do a sterling job, doubling up as a crane lifting service for those who have fallen and stuck on the floor. Even I have had to call them to help me when unable to reunite a mobility scooter with his seat following a tumble. This emergency service consists of lifesavers, not heavy weight lifters, their skills and resources used whilst others suffer cardiac arrests and wait in jeopardy.
Premature hospital discharges result in swift re-admissions as there are no respite places. Exe-Bank you were an amazing rehab centre, shame the council chose to close you and sell the land to builders. As I now add this it is being built on. Affordable homes for locals? Don’t be daft! Money back into social care services? Not on your nelly. Short sighted greed.
