Opinion
READER LETTER: ‘Our carers don’t get the recognition they deserve’
Jeanne Heal's letter is in response to a story about Richard May, who has signed a do not resuscitate because he is frightened of being taken to hospital and placed back into a care home. PICTURE: Jamie Honeywood - Credit: Archant
I refer to the article about a gentleman needing care at home (North Norfolk News, February 21).
I note that our MP is demanding that the local authority provides the care required.
Where is such care to come from when the article also refers to the inability of the company concerned to provide the care required?
It can only come from taking the staff from someone else.
Our MP should be dealing with the issues that have caused this situation, a chance he had when he was minister for health in the Tory government. Instead he supported the damaging and costly Health and Social Care Act
Paid carers, particularly those that provide care in the community, are an undervalued and underpaid workforce. Until society recognises and rewards the skills needed to provide such a service, there will be a shortage of community care staff.
In recent years, carers have been asked to take on more and more nursing tasks for little extra reward.
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It is easy to write a letter on behalf of one constituent berating an authority strapped for cash. Why did he support the Tory government's austerity agenda which has resulted in the underfunding of care?
Society is judged by the way it looks after its vulnerable members. Care services need to be properly funded. The Labour party has pledged to give local authorities the freedom to raise the funds they need to care for everyone in their communities.
JEANNE HEAL
Mundesley Road
North Walsham
• What do you think? Email nnn.letters@archant.co.uk to get your views featured in the newspaper.