Media Release
Contact: Ken Ferguson, 07925 613145
To Provide for carers, to Protect service users, and to Prevent another care catastrophe: build a National Care Service for Scotland.
Meeting at the weekend, the Executive Committee of the Scottish Socialist Party agreed that the shocking number of deaths recorded in Britain’s care homes has exposed the deficiencies in the private sector model and makes the introduction of a publicly owned National Care Service [NCS] an urgent priority.
The party agreed to step up its campaign for such a National Care Service, allied to the NHS, by lobbying Trade Unions and other campaign groups to support the plan. The SSP have launched an online petition to press Nicola Sturgeon and Boris Johnston to back this demand.
Outlining the party’s thinking, National Co-spokesperson Colin Fox said:
“The scandalous death toll in Britain’s care homes (around 18,000 according to the latest figures) is due in part to the failure to provide adequate supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE). It has more also exposed the failings in a care model built around ‘market forces’ and private profit. The fitting long term legacy of this terrible pandemic should be the vow to ensure it can never occur again. And for the SSP only the establishment of a National Care Service, sitting alongside our NHS, can guarantee that.
“Never again must care home residents be treated like ‘the Cinderellas of care’. They deserve better. The ‘cradle to the grave’ care they were promised by Beveridge has not materialised. They deserve to be served by a publicly owned, fully equipped service fit for the 21st century. One where care staff are well paid for the valuable and highly regarded work they do in looking after our senior citizens in their golden years.
“The profit motive, which has been the driving influences in the care system to date, has proved to be a lethal failure. This must be the first lesson we learn from this tragic episode.
“The truth is, of course, that the conditions that led to this pandemic, viruses leaping from wild animals to humans, in huge urban metropolises, with mass air travel and an absence of international trade regulations and the chronic underfunding of meaningful public health stratagems means Covid-19 is very unlikely to be the last such health pandemic we face.
“So we either face the prospect of lockdowns with every new virus and the frantic search for more vaccines or we build a robust public health system capable of stamping out new infections before they menace the health of billions.
“Of course the immediate challenge we face in getting people back to work or our kids back to school is ensuring this can only happen when we can be sure we are protecting their health and all human life.
“Ultimately, only an economy based on meeting universal basic needs rather than prioritising profits for an elite, with and end to Zero Hours contracts and the introduction of a minimum wage of at least £12 an hour can secure a future which ends the threat of another virus crisis.”
To Provide for carers, to Protect service users, and to Prevent another care catastrophe: build a National Care Service for Scotland.