Government launches care comparison website
by Pharmacy Life - Published on 26 April 2013
Hot on the heels of the Francis report and its findings on the failings of care for the elderly, the government has launched a new website providing information to help people choose, compare and comment on residential care homes and home care services.
Launched by Care and Support Minister, Norman Lamb, the new care profiles help people to search and compare residential care homes and other care services and make confident choices about registered care for themselves or family members.
The profiles bring together information from a variety of sources, including:
• official information from the Care Quality Commission inspection reports on care services
• information from care providers on the specialist services and facilities they offer, with details of staff and other useful information such as sample menus, photos of rooms and gardens
• comments from the public, service users, residents and their families on their own experiences of the care provider, including links to other comment sites
• from next month, the ability for the public to give services star ratings
• official Ofsted-style rating for care services, when they are introduced
The profiles are available on www.nhs.uk and sit alongside easy to reference information on entitlements to care, paying for care, organising a care need assessment and other practical advice.
More than 8,000 care providers have already added information about their services to their profile on the website, and many more are expected to do so.
Over the coming months, care homes and other registered care and support services will be able to add details on how they perform against specific standards such as number of falls, bed sores, medication management and training of staff, as well as missed and on-time visits for homecare.
The site will also allow care providers to reply to comments from the public, so that they can explain to people why they operate in a particular way and, if relevant, what they are doing to improve things so providers and the public can have an open conversation.