A Kintyre and the Islands councillor has claimed there are “chronic” care issues on Islay, referencing ongoing issues at Gortonvogie Residential Home in Bowmore.
At an Argyll and Bute Council meeting on Thursday November 23, Councillor Dougie McFadzean raised concerns about staff shortages, pay disparities and injuries he said staff had suffered.
In a question to the council’s policy lead for care services, councillor Amanda Hampsey, he said: “We are relying on four agency staff in the care home and five agency staff to fill the gaps in care at home with a ridiculous cost to the council.
“Some staff have been paid over £60 per hour – whereby our indigenous staff are paid around £14 per hour. Staff are being injured on duty and not reporting these injuries and that is purely down to the pressure they are now under. I would like to know what the pathway out of this is.”
In her response, councillor Hampsey said: “I’m aware of various issues we deal with daily across Argyll and Bute, but you’ll also be aware they are operational issues for many of them.
“In terms of care, you may also want to consider a declaration of interest. More than happy to follow-up with some further details, but operational matters I’m afraid are not within my remit.”
Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership’s (ABHSCP) chief officer Fiona Davies also responded to the concerns.
“We are working hard to look at our older adult model and to look at our strategies around getting the right balance of care in residential settings as well as care at home,” she explained.
“The wider issue of rates of pay within social care is one that we lobby government very hard on as those rates are set at a national level. I can ensure you we have a very loud voice around that table.”
Councillor McFadzean noted the suggested conflict of interest, telling council members that his wife is employed at Gortonvogie, while insisting she hadn’t been his information source.
He added: “There is a bigger picture here and it’s not operational. It is to do with decisions that are made at council – resourcing and where our priorities lie – including the rates of pay, which are not competitive with private industry.
“That’s something we can maybe discuss during the budgetary process. However, staff are now being injured and they haven’t reported that – partly because they’re scared to report it as an issue. I represent Islay and the problem is critical at the moment.”
Councillor Hampsey said: “There is no suggestion any information came from your wife. I didn’t actually mention your wife in particular. If it’s items that have been raised with you since you’ve been elected then I will say I am disappointed you haven’t felt in a position to come to me before now.”
Ms Davies added: “I would share a concern of any member of staff that didn’t feel able to utilise the incident reporting mechanisms we have in place for our council and NHS employed staff.
“We have got new leadership coming into Gortonvogie and I would hope that would offer us a new chapter in resetting relationships between those in leadership, as well as with our frontline staff to ensure all health and safety and incident reporting procedures are followed.”
On behalf of Gortonvogie Residential Home, an ABHCP spokesman said: “Recruitment and retention in social care services, especially in our remote and rural areas, has been and remains very challenging for us and this is a workforce issue that is reflected across the country.
“We are striving to reduce our reliance on agency staff and we continue to promote current vacancies using a range of marketing channels and we would encourage anyone interested in working for us in health or social care to apply at myjobscotland.gov.uk or jobs.scot.nhs.uk
“We also have strict health and safety guidelines in place at all our facilities and we would strongly encourage staff to report all health and safety issues.”