Coronavirus has exposed the gaping holes in social care. But it is also a chance for change Polly Toynbee
over 5 years in The guardian
This crisis might achieve one thing: voters supporting Andy Burnham’s plan to bring social care into the NHS
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When it’s all over they will build memorials to the doctors and nurses who died, overloaded with Covid-19 infection and often without sufficient protection. Will there be memorials to care workers, too, struggling in care homes and peoples’ own homes in far worse conditions, some wearing bin bags? Low-paid, largely untrained, often on zero-hours contracts, employed by agencies, their vital work is lowest status. It’s no surprise there are 122,000 care vacancies.
Public clapping and belated political tributes at last recognise that the hidden, underfunded and fragmented world of care is a life-sustaining artery of the NHS. When it fails, NHS beds fill. But will this revelation outlast the crisis? Continue reading...
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