UK: Elderly Need More Professional Care

While in theory it makes perfect sense for family to look after their elderly, it seems that it is not so practical.  Indeed, in the UK, Lord Willis of Knaresborough pointed out the problematic implications of this.  While he noted they are indeed “well-meaning,” they have “virtually no training [and] are unregistered, unregulated and often unsupervised.” These comments were based on a review he led in 2012 of nurses’ education.  Given this finding, Willis has now called for “mandatory training and a timetable for standards to come into force.”

He is not the only politician to feel this way.  Chairman of Barnet and Chase Farm NHS Trust, Baroness Wall of New Barnet added that by not pushing this, people end up not being safe. Others chimed in that due to a lack of mandatory registration, “dangerous” caretakers can end up “going anywhere.”

Thus Baroness Northover, Health spokesperson, informed the House of Lords that the government is intending to establish training and conduct guidelines, given the findings of this report.  Although others fought back saying that the government has anyway been very aware of this predicament for some time and that the quality of care needs to be upgraded.