UK Care Home Operators Want Higher Fees For NHS Patents

Care home operators are pressing the UK government for higher prices to take in National Health Service (NHS) patients as they seek to tackle a staff shortage before the pressures become even more acute, Hannah Kuchler and Leke Oso Alabi reported for the Financial Times.

Photo Insert: Companies such as market leaders HC-One, Barchester Healthcare, Four Seasons and Care UK could receive up to £200 million under the new NHS crisis plan to clear patients from hospital beds by moving them to care homes.

Companies such as market leaders HC-One, Barchester Healthcare, Four Seasons and Care UK could receive up to £200 million under the new NHS crisis plan to clear patients from hospital beds by moving them to care homes.

The sector has about 70,000 free beds, according to data from property consultancy Knight Frank, far more than the 13,000 patients waiting for discharge.

But the private care home operators are pushing for prices of two to three times what some local authorities have been paying per bed per week, according to the industry association Care England, arguing they have been historically underfunded and hit by inflation.

Providers said the extra money would help them pay staff more, so they did not lose workers to more lucrative and less stressful jobs.

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