06.11.18
Home care provider Allied Healthcare’s future at risk amid funding crisis
The CQC has reported that Allied Healthcare has only been able to confirm it has funding to survive until 30 November, and that there has been no assurance that the company has or will have the investment to ensure it can operate beyond this date.
The chief inspector of adult social care at the CQC, Andrea Sutcliffe CBE, called it a “very unsettling time for everyone who uses Allied Healthcare,” with 84 councils in England using the company to supply home care to patients.
Allied Healthcare, one of the UK’s largest healthcare and home care providers in England, applied for a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) to restructure its debts in April, and the CQC has been closely monitoring the situation since then.
The new report says that the CQC is now assessing the future viability of the company to determine whether continuity of care can be maintained for people who are receiving home care services from the provider.
Sutcliffe said it was a “very unsettling time for everyone who uses Allied Healthcare’s services, their families and loved ones, and staff.”
“We will continue to work closely with Allied Healthcare and all of our partners...to make sure appropriate action is being taken in the interests of people’s continuity of care if this proves necessary.”
The CQC said it had encouraged the company to provide it with a realistic financially backed plan, but despite being given every opportunity to do so, Allied Healthcare had failed to give “adequate assurance regarding future funding.”
The CQC says it was now doing its legal duty in notifying all 84 local authorities where Allied Healthcare is contracted with a “credible risk of service disruption” in order to give the council’s time to prepare and ensure care services are continued.
Simon Bottery, senior fellow at The King’s Fund, said that over 13,000 people rely on Allied Healthcare for care and support and that whilst local authorities would be working on contingency plans, “this does not take away from the anxiety and disruption they and their families will be experiencing.”
He said: “The problems faced by Allied Healthcare are a symptom of the huge pressures facing a social care system which is at breaking point after years of under-funding.
“Allied Healthcare are not the only major care provider experiencing financial problems. Their difficulties are yet another wake-up call to the huge problems in social care.”
Allied Healthcare said the CVA had been successfully agreed with its creditors, which would allow it to implement a sustainable business plan and that it was working closely with a number of organisations to achieve a successful restructuring.
Image credit - Dean Mitchell
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