We always welcome a Letter to the Editor to share with our readers – unsurprisingly they don’t always reflect the views of this publication. If you have something you’d like to share, get in touch and of course, your considered comments are welcome below. This from Martin Young from Cowes. Ed
I recently received a booklet in the post titled “My life a full life”, which details some of the problems the NHS and the Isle of Wight Council have in funding care for our elderly.
It makes for depressing reading, but I strongly urge all Islanders to read and digest the facts contained in the booklet.
- A quarter of the Island’s population is over the age of 65, compared with 16.6% in England overall.
- About 70% of hospital beds on the Island are currently occupied by people over the age of 65.
- Growing pressure on social care services means the Island needs to recruit 100 additional carers in order to look after people in need
- If no action is taken now, the combined Isle of Wight health and social care system will face a funding shortfall of £52 million by 2020.
- Without change, some people across the Island will go without the level of care they need.
Why no plan for the future?
So how did we get into this mess? I am 70, (part of the post war “baby bulge”), so the “authorities” have had 70 odd years to plan for this.
Over the past 40 years or more, we have had in Parliament some of the best educated politicians from Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Oxford University etc, but it would appear than none of them can put two and two together and plan for the future.
One look at the demographics of the Island shows the extent of the problem.
(Data has been taken from Demographics & Population Factsheet November 2015 available from the Isle of Wight Council Website)
As can be seen from the 2014 and projected 2024 tables, if no action is taken now, then the problem will only get worse in the future, as the 55 to 90+ age group becomes even larger.
Bigger problem here
The problem on the Island is much more worse than in other parts of the UK. We have more elderly on the Island as people tend to move to the Island when they retire, and our trained youth tend to move to the mainland to find decent jobs.
We simply do not have enough workers within the age group 20 to 50 to sustain our elderly population.
Wealth creation industries needed
In an earlier letter to the County Press (8th April 2016), I showed that here on the Island we have less than 5% of the population employed in the wealth creation industries.
The Island needs, as a matter of urgency, to instigate a programme to attract more high-tech, high paid jobs to the Island. We need to use our current “Assisted Area” status to enable us to obtain tax concessions for firms (and employees), to re-locate to the Island who can offer employment and training to our youth.
A cap on retirees moving to the Island?
So what do we do? Somehow we have to increase the workers within the 20 to 50 age group, or control who can retire here, or even both! Not at all an easy problem to solve.
The Council obviously needs more money, hence the Fight for the Wight campaign which is trying to get the Government to see the Island as a special case and give us more money, so I urge all Islanders to support the Council in their Fight for the Wight campaign. We will need a Plan B if the Government refuse to help us.
I think an Island-wide debate is required to seek solutions to this problem that is facing all of us, otherwise the Council will have no choice but to drastically increase our Council Tax, and stop retirees from the mainland coming here to live!
Image: bromfordgroup under CC BY 2.0
