Letter: Failing homes could leave elderly in need

They are failing drastically and it was predicted 37,500 elderly people could be homeless as a result.

The hope is that they will be given a hospital bed.

Let’s look at that in terms of their lives.

They are born, learn to walk, talk and go to school.

Then go to work, do more life stuff and suddenly they are aged, and not capable of independence anymore. Nursing homes are then looked at and in you go at a price – savings, pension or selling the family home to meet the costs of these privately owned businesses.

The first principal of any business is to make money for themselves and shareholders, and then the staff, upkeep, meals etc. instead of putting the needs of the elderly first, then their staff, meals and upkeep.

We hear about a system in which goods and services are set freely between vendors (owners of the nursing homes) and the consumers (the elderly), in which law and forces of supply and demand are free from any intervention by a government. And yet they fail.

This is what is happening under this government.

Everything is cut to the bare bones and much suffering is going on. So ideally let’s have something else in place, such as a properly funded nursing home service held by the public.

Johanna Boal

Beverley