Smaller care services, facing “astonishing” costs due to covid-19, could go bust without “real immediate support” the body representing most care providers in Scotland is warning.

Donald Macaskill of Scottish Care says medium-sized care at home agencies were a “particular point of vulnerability”.

Speaking to healthandcare.scot, he also voiced concerns about smaller care homes often located in rural areas of the country.

Scottish Care is writing to local government umbrella group COSLA and health & social care partnerships (HSCPs) to ask that they speed up support plans.

HSCPs were asked by the NHS Scotland CEO to submit mobilisation plans setting out how they would try to move patients out of hospital whose discharge had been delayed, often due to a lack of social care support.

In Edinburgh, the HSCP says care providers will not penalised if they are unable to fulfil their contracted hours due to staff absences caused by covid-19.

Scottish Care has previously warned of “astronomical” price increases of essentials such as PPE.

“Some of our homecare providers because of their size scale scope have faced astonishing pressures in terms of increase in staffing costs, increase of PPE costs et cetera,” Dr Macaskill said. 

“We are very concerned that without appropriate support from the mobilisation plans, which are being drawn up by Integration Joint Boards, without real immediate support some of those will go to the wall.

“I am equally concerned that some of our smaller, perhaps more rural and remote, care homes are highly vulnerable without additional financial support.

“Today I will be writing to COSLA and the integrated joint boards to see if we can give particular focus in the next few days to scaling up mobilisation plans which appreciate the risk which the care sector are under.”

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