Time to integrate NHS and social care – Yorkshire Post Letters

THE Government is rightly being criticised for its foot-dragging on bringing forward proposals for the sustainable funding of social care, which has been brought into sharp relief by the coronavirus pandemic (David Hinchliffe, The Yorkshire Post, July 18).

However, it is important to remember that funding is not the only problem to be resolved. The other one is provision. It has been evident for a very long time that private sector delivery of social care is unfit for purpose.

Dubiously financed private equity companies are accountable to no one, and one of the many things we have learned during the pandemic is that accountability is critical.

The employment practices of private companies quite frankly stink, with low wages the norm, pension provision minimal, and zero-hours contracts common.

The use of ‘bank’ carers to work in different care homes on different days has been every bit as wilfully negligent as the discharge of untested, or even infected patients from hospitals into care homes.

There is no meaningful distinction between health care and social care. It follows that there is no logic in health care being provided by the public sector, and social care by the private sector.

If the Government is serious about recognising carers, then it is high time that carers were rewarded with public sector terms and conditions as members of an organisation that either runs parallel to, or integrated with, the NHS as part of a solution that lasts a generation rather than the length of a Parliament.

Better to learn from history

From: Karl Sheridan, Holme upon Spalding Moor.

THE unlawful attack on various statues that offend certain members of our community is not the way forward and, in some cases, has the opposite effect to that that they desire.

Yes, those men who are revered by statues might well have benefitted financially by the awful trade of slavery. However whatever way you look at it, it is what it is – history!

Rather than destroy the statues, it might be a far better idea to have an explanatory plaque attached explaining the true history of the men, and that these men were profiteering from the misery of human bondage. In that way, children can learn from this.

This would be far better than wanton destruction and rioting which has a negative effect on the way certain members of the community are viewed.

Slavery was, and is, a terrible thing but whatever century or whatever country you pick has at some time been involved in slavery, from the Vikings sacking our shores to the Romans whose whole empire was built using slavery, and not just using African people.

It’s a sad fact that even today we have modern slavery and it appears that society never 
learns.

I do wonder, though, if those individuals intent on trying to change history realise that the very history they are reviling is what created them. A sobering thought perhaps.

Not time for reorganisation

From: Coun Mike Potter (Lib), Pickering West Ward, Ryedale District Council.

YOUR readers may be unaware that at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, our democratically elected government removed the decision-making powers of democratically elected councillors and handed them to council chief executives.

Council meetings understandably ceased. This situation will continue until at least September. There are vast and inevitable worldwide impacts from Covid-19 on the economy, unemployment, poverty, food production and supply lines, physical and mental health.

Consequently, there will be massive organisational and economic repercussions for the repaying of debts, incurred by huge borrowing, for years to come.

Public finances are in a parlous state from the cost of dealing with the impacts of lockdown on local businesses and residents alike. Many councils are on the brink of bankruptcy. Most ‘business as usual’ at every level has been sidelined to deal with a crisis quite reasonably compared to a war footing.

Apparently, resources are too stretched for an interim inquiry to learn vital lessons in time for a likely winter spike.

Despite the above, the Government has decided to embark on devolving control to the regions and electing mayors, dependent on major reorganisation of local authorities. The last one in 1972 involved significant cost and time. The deadline for input from local councils is… September.

Do others agree that now is not the ideal time for a major government reorganisation of the deckchairs on the Titanic? Shouldn’t council chief executives be highlighting that they are otherwise occupied managing the emergency lifeboat stations?

Botham beef

From: Peter Staniforth, Glusburn.

SO Sir Ian Botham is in line for a peerage because of Brexit (The Yorkshire Post, July 20)? Nothing to do with his prowess as a cricketer, or his charity work? Your obsession with the EU is beyond a joke.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

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James Mitchinson

Editor