The Herald ‘owned by Newsquest, one of the UK’s biggest newspaper and website publishers’ is today the media arm of a pre-emptive strike by the private care home industry to try to transfer responsibility for their failures onto the Scottish Government.
In two linked pieces, spokespersons for the industry are able to distort the truth unchallenged by the reporter.
First, the ‘devastating critique’ comes from Scottish Care, described quite misleadingly as ‘Scotland’s main care body’ when they are merely, as they put it themselves, ‘the voice of the independent care sector.’
Entirely unchallenged by the reporter, the group attempts to blame the Scottish Government for their own failures. These are institutions owned by large corporations, often registered offshore to avoid tax, paying massive dividends to shareholders and paying minimum wages to staff. Often they operate at dangerously low levels, relying on agency staff, to make profit.
They are then allowed to excuse themselves from paying for testing especially of the staff moving from one home to another, from not training staff in long-established and simple infection control techniques and from forgetting to stock enough PPE.
In one revealing comment they demand more testing within easy range of their staff who ‘do not always have cars‘. Why don’t they have cars wonder the millionaire owners? Insecure employment on poverty wages?
In a key omission, the report fails to mention that, on average, the much commented on 900 patients discharged into care homes works out at around one to two each, requiring isolation procedures, non rocket-science, of the kind New Zealand’s care homes managed to do without fuss.
In a second piece, one owner, Tony Banks of Balhousie, is presented as ‘chairman and founder’ rather than ‘owner’ as if he led some charitable organisation. He is allowed to imply that management is somehow not his responsibility and that infection control procedures, essentially the same for any virus and surely familiar over decades to care homes for the vulnerable, required them just to ‘cross our fingers.’ Let’s hope they knew about washing their fingers? Oh, Jeane Freeman didn’t tell them to wash their hands clearly enough in guidance personally handed to them?
Bizarrely and insensitively, Banks is able to use the article as an opportunity to claim that the death rate in his homes is ‘less than half the industry average.‘ There’s an industry average for deaths? Who publishes that? He wants recognition?
Perhaps explaining this article today, Balhousie has been in the news more than once recently.
In early May this year:
Balhousie Care Group, which runs 22 homes across Tayside and Fife, has refused to state if there have been any Covid-19 related fatalities recorded at their homes in a move that has been slammed as “defying belief”.
Only last November:
Medication errors and staffing levels have been brought under the spotlight at a Perthshire care home following an inspection in August. Balhousie Dalnaglar, which provides care and support for up to 40 older people, is operated by the Balhousie Care Group. The Care Inspectorate said: “Dalnaglar had reported a high number of medication errors in the three months prior to our inspection. We found that medication was not managed effectively to meet people’s care needs.
There’s much more on the larger-than-life Banks across social media but it’s not relevant here.
Finally, a Holyrood committee report into testing is under lock and key.
Oooh, who locked it away? That Jeane Freeman must be up to something.
It was Scottish Labour convener, Lewis Macdonald? Oh.
Why is it locked away? Because it was felt that it would allow more people to testify? Aaah. That’s a good thing then, is it? I thought so.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
All Senior company directors under law
Have a duty to ensure the company that they are on the directors board
Conduct All their duties in a responsible manner at all times and within the law
And never run the operations in such a manner that can lead to corporate failure
Along with their duty to fellow shareholders and never run it in a QUASI manner
Other directors have a duty to report to the authorities if they believe that the company is being run in such ways
Ignorance of such is no excuse under law
It is high time all on the Indy side took the gloves now and hit back hard and furious with the reality of BLUNT TRUTH
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No Holyrood committee report into ANYTHING should be under lock and key.
We the Scots Taxpayers have funded it so have a right to see it!
It must be damaging to the Union or BritNat Business acquaintances if Lewis “Rent-a-Gob” Macdonald MSP isn’t blaming the SNP.
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Also Lewis “Rent-a-Gob” Macdonald MSP regularly chunters shite in defence of British Nationalism in NE Scotland.
His wife is one of the Pro-Union Aberdeen City Council Administration who’s legacy will be to bankrupt that City the way Detroit was bankrupted.
Of course the MacDonalds will blame the EssEnnPee Scottish Government for underfunding Aberdeen (like they currently claim Dundee is doing better than Aberdeen due to bias from the Scots Gov as opposed to better Governance by the Council)!
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From the Herald article:”The strategy from the Scottish Government was clear from the start: to protect the NHS. And it was successful.”
Let’s have a look at SAGE advice at the time. Tweet by Devi Sridhar, Professor and Chair of Global Public Health at Edinburgh Uni.
“16th SAGE meeting: ‘The objective is to avoid critical cases exceeding NHS intensive care and other respiratory support bed capacity.’
Another tweet
“Also worth noting how devolved nations (Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland) were not integrated into SAGE in Feb/March so had no real insights into decisions –> Scotland only set up its advisory group on 30th March. Publishes full membership & minutes just days after meetings.”
The SAGE advice looks woeful.
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Note that Balhousie Care Group is not the official name of a Company, but appears in the registered address of both Balhousie Holdings Limited, and Balhousie Care Limited.
Mr Banks is the Controlling Party of both. Balhousie Holdings Limited is a Company as well as a Group of companies. I don’t know how you can tell what companies are in the Group, but it obviously includes Balhousie Care Limited. You can search for Mr Banks and find active involvement in 15 entities, both companies and LLP’s.
The Notes on Pages 34 and 36 of the Group’s latest accounts (which are up to 30 Sept 2018) are an interesting read. The URL that Companies House provides for company accounts is ridiculously long, so, if interested, you’ll have to go to https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/SC278485/filing-history and find it there.
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The article continues the SG “failed” theme the Herald and Pacific Quay have peddled throughout this crisis, but Balhousie et al will have real concerns their gravy train may soon be slowed down if not derailed.
The Care Inspectorate legal action against Home Farm has shaken not just HC-One but all the corporate operators in this industry across the UK.
Banks will be nominated to rescue the cartel from rising public anger in Scotland over corporate greed..
Anything negative on SG will be manna for the Herald, actualities or truth have never concerned them…
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Might the SG have pre-empted this sort of nonsense if they had been a bit more direct about care home owners’ responsibilities from the beginning. It is not SG’s responsibility to put infection control procedures in place, to provide PPE, to provide staff training, etc. SG may define the requirements, the Care Commission may inspect premises, but neither is responsible for the implementation of the rules.
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Jeanne Freeman gave a pretty good response at this afternoon’s Scottish Government Briefing (which for some reason isn’t available on the BBC i-Player) after a question from a journalist referring to the Balhousie criticism of the SG. She made the point that if staff from private care homes had decent terms and conditions of employment they wouldn’t be afraid to be off sick after a positive test. Worth watching if and when it’s online.
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It’s on Youtube now.
Just watched it and that particular response by Freeman to the barbed question was polite, but coupled with Jeanne’s characteristic bluntness, it will have drawn a few corporate winces from those seeking to hide behind Holyrood’s skirts.
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My understanding is that in Scotland around 50% of residential care beds are provided by the private sector (although this has grown extensively after changes in legislation in the 1990’s). The remaining 50% is provide by local authories and the third sector (charities). While pay and conditions in the public/charitable sector might not be great, the are usually better than the private sector, not least because they are on the whole unionised. I am a bit puzzled why no one has asked for the numbers in relation to deaths in care homes to be analysed to see what if any differences are apparent between the private sector and the other public/charitable sector providers. If they are the same, then that seems to tell one story, that this is an issue across the whole residential care sector irrespective of ownership. However, if the mortality rate in the private sector is significantly higher, then the private care sector has an awful lot of explaining to do.
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Prof – you really need to get this article into the National. It’s very penetrating.
I’m sure there must be others out here wondering why the Scottish Government doesn’t answer more robustly when people like private home owners try to shift the blame. In fact, I’ve heard quite a few daily press conferences in which Nicola Sturgeon and Jeane Freeman have commented on the duty of care of these establishments but their comments never seem to make their way onto BBC or STV news or into papers like the Herald.
As for the different death rates in council, charity-run and private care homes , I’ll bet there’s someone out there with that information. I for one would love to see it.
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