BBC ALBA EXPLORES CHALLENGES IN SCOTLAND’S CARE SECTOR IN LATEST EÒRPA EPISODE
The care sector in Scotland continues to struggle to find and keep staff. Reporter Màiri Riddoch travels through the Western Isles and the Highlands to meet carers, service users, bosses and politicians to learn about the challenges faced in these areas in the new BBC ALBA documentary, Eòrpa: Who Cares?
After being granted access to a number of care-homes in the public and independent sectors, as well as home-delivered care, Màiri hears how an ageing population and dwindling proportion of young people are putting the care system at risk of failure.
She also meets carers who speak of the immensely rewarding and enjoyable nature of an albeit challenging, and at time heartbreaking, job.
As one resident puts it to her carer: “Where would I be without you?”.
Delayed discharge from hospitals is a problem throughout Scotland, with a daily average of 2,000 patients waiting to get out of hospitals despite being medically fit. A lack of capacity in the care sector is a major contributory factor.
Speaking at the Western Isles Hospital in Stornoway, NHS Western Isles chief executive Gordon Jamieson explains that a shortage of care staff is causing real difficulties in moving people from hospitals into the community.
Gordon says: “Today for example, there are 16 delayed discharges in this hospital, there are four delayed discharges in the Uist and Barra hospital. It’s over 30% of the beds available in this hospital.
“And the knock-on effect of that is that we may not be able to take in people for elective operations because the beds are unfortunately occupied, despite everybody’s best efforts, by people who can’t get out to the right place in the community.
“I think one of the main issues for us is the steady population decline in the Western Isles. It’s probably one of, if not the, most significant risk that the system fails.”
Across the Minch in Mallaig, Màiri meets Shanna Eddie, deputy manager at the NHS-run Mackintosh Centre care home.
The facility was forced to close in summer 2023 due to a lack of staff. It re-opened in November last year, something that was welcomed greatly by the community, residents and staff alike.
Recalling the closure in 2023, Shanna comments: “It was like everything had been ripped out from underneath you. We had six permanent residents at the time, and it was worrying about where they were going to go, how the families were going to cope, how their daily lives were going to be affected.
“We had some residents whose family didn’t drive. And for them to then be relocated 40 miles up the road to Fort William cut down greatly on their daily visits that they used to get from various family members over the course of a week.”
Many of Scotland’s residential care homes are run by independent providers, often charities or private companies.
Fairburn House in Muir of Ord, around 20 miles northwest of Inverness, has been in Susan Davison’s family for over 40 years: “We are quite rural, so that causes its own difficulties.
“We’re not on a bus route, so that again causes difficulty. And over the last while, it’s been much more difficult because there’s just not people coming for interviews or anything like that.”
Reporter Màiri Riddoch reflects on her report: “It was a privilege to have the opportunity to film inside care homes and in people’s own homes, speak to staff and to those receiving care. I wanted to shine a light on the sector and help highlight what an important and rewarding job it can be, one which I feel is often undervalued.
“Our ageing population combined with a declining working age population, particularly in the Islands and rural Highlands, brings the problem of recruitment into even sharper focus. This is something our elected representatives will need to grapple with for years to come.”
Eòrpa is BBC ALBA’s flagship current affairs programme, covering a variety of domestic and European stories.
Eòrpa: Who Cares? will premiere on BBC ALBA and BBC iPlayer at 9pm on Wednesday 12 March (in Gaelic with English subtitles).
Watch live or on demand: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b006mvwb/eorpa
