BBC Scotland today has:
One care home closing every week, industry warns but ‘the industry’ reps have no actual figures to offer.
The media are pretty much swallowing it whole and regurgitating it, undigested, for their anxious aging audiences. The opposition parties wait in the wings to pepper the regurgitated matter with their own spices.
Here are the most recent data for 31 March 2022, published in September 2022:
On 31 March 2022, there were 1,051 care homes for adults and 40,579 registered places – 20% and 5% fewer, respectively, compared with 31 March 2012.
On 31 March 2022, there were an estimated 33,352 residents aged 18 years and over in care homes – 11% fewer than 31 March 2012 (37,335).
The estimated percentage occupancy on 31 March 2022 was 82%, compared with 87% on 31 March 2012.
https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/care-home-census-for-adults-in-scotland/care-home-census-for-adults-in-scotland-statistics-for-2012-2022/
So, to be blunt, while there were quite a few less care homes, down 20% over 10 years, places had only fallen by 5%.
Although places had fallen by 5%, demand for places had fallen by more than twice as much, 11%.
Consequently, care home occupancy had fallen significantly.
Cash cows? See:
and:
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I say “ oh good” let them close , Scottish government im sure can set up a deal with the local authorities in Scotland to take over provision and get care back to the superior care provision we had before privatisation
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Hear, Hear!
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Threats from care Home owners to close premises is a bit rich – coming from people who have got rich from that sector .
They have a terrific PR machine , called the BBC , which enthusiastically promotes their grievances and supports their every moan against the Scottish Government .
If only the Scottish NHS got the same backing from the State Broadcaster .
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And I don’t expect HMS James Cook or the originators of the piece mentioned the devastating impact Brexit et al has had on staffing….
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Shrinking pool of staff means higher wages, it’s the market although not the way they like it.
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Does the ‘ Care Home ‘ market simply consist of care for the elderly, I don’t think so. The SG have been moving towards care in the community with special housing adapted to meet a whole range of disabilities both physical and mental which in the past more often the not meant being put into care.
I’m pretty certain I didn’t vote in a government more interested in offshoring profit and protecting dividends for their mates than providing care for our most vulnerable.
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You didn’t, England did in the 1980s with Thatcher.
Bar a 13 year flirt with Bliar’s “New Labour”, England has consistently voted the Tories in and will soon vote in their clones…
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Thatcher care in the community – prison.
Personal care in Scotland means more elderly people can stay in their own homes. Personal care is less than Residential and hospital care.
People who have the means pay for residential care. Until they have £16,000 left. Councils pay for residential care for people.
The housing market is changing people getting longer mortgages. 35 years etc.
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Do care home companies publish accounts? Are they actually operating at a loss, or is it just that the profit margins are not as great as they would like?
In a previous job I dealt with a chap who was very apparently influential in the care home sector. He managed several care homes. He tried to get me to stop one of our students, injured in a care home he managed, from suing the care home. I was supposed to coerce the student into giving up her case and tell her to disregard her lawyers’ advice. He was upset when I explained that the student was an adult and I refused. The irony was that the home’s insurers had already agreed to settle with her. Precious little care for his employees.
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