Care homes operator has been branded “greedy” for telling relatives of private residents to pay almost £200 more a month to cover coronavirus-related costs.
Agincare sent around 300 families already paying in the region of £4,000 a month an invoice for a “PPE surcharge” of £6.47 per day for April.
It came on top of a 5% increase in fees from last month – and they have been warned they face the same bill monthly until the pandemic eases.
But families said the cost for April was unjustified as staff only got the PPE on April 15. And one relative said they got a bill despite her elderly aunt dying almost two months
ago. Family-run Agincare is based in Dorset, owns 20 homes and made a profit of £2.36million in 2018.
Jan Urquijo, whose 93-year-old mum Pauline pays £939 a week at Bournemouth’s Blenheim home, was “horrified” at its demands.
She said: “The care industry is not losing money like other businesses.
“They are still getting their money every month, whether from individuals, social services or the NHS.
“At a time when we have seen a lot of positivity and people pulling together, I feel Agincare should take the hit of what, in the grand scheme, is not an enormous amount of money out of their profit share. They say it’s not just for PPE but also staffing costs. But no company ever increases prices for that.
“If you had staff shortages in winter because of sickness, that’s something the company has to swallow from their profits.
“The home where my mother is has not had any Covid cases or any staff sickness.
“I know they weren’t wearing PPE on the 14th of April, yet my mother is being charged £6.47 a day. I’m just horrified, it’s disgusting. I’m appalled at their attitude, it’s just greedy. The fee-paying residents are subsidising those paid by social services, yet they all get the same level of care. How unfair is that?
“I’ve written to them saying they cannot justify this and I’ve still not received a response.
“They expect it to be paid within 14 days but I won’t be paying.”
Marlene Kennedy’s elderly aunt died at one of Agincare’s homes in March but she said she has still been asked to pay the April PPE surcharge. She said: “It’s just unbelievable. I could understand if it had happened a day or two after, but not six weeks. It’s just not on for what is supposed to be a caring profession.
“I spoke to their finance director and just received condolences and what was a very weak apology as far as I’m concerned.”
Barbara Collins, whose mother-in-law is in one of the firm’s homes, slammed the demands for cash from private residents as “unfair”.
She said: “There’s a huge unfairness between what residents are charged. I feel paying residents are subsidising a lot of the other residents.”
The invoice was accompanied by a letter from Agincare’s financial director, Owen Griffiths, headed “Covid-19: Additional costs”.
He said they had “no option but to invoice a temporary surcharge in order to contribute towards the additional costs”. The letter adds these costs were the “additional use and price of PPE and increased staffing costs”.
Acting Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said: “Families are already struggling and could have lost work as a result of the lockdown, so this added cost will be very difficult to manage.
“The Government has simply not helped care homes enough, and many have had to try and get their own PPE in the private sector.
“Ministers could start by removing VAT from the cost of PPE for care homes and ask care homes in return not to hike their charges.
“Clearly ministers should make sure that families do not bear the brunt of the Government’s poor management of PPE in the care sector and make more help available for care homes trying to do their best.”
Labour's Shadow Social Care Minister Liz Kendall said: "It is shocking that vulnerable care home residents and their families are being asked to pay these huge extra costs.
"More needs to be done to ensure all care staff get the PPE they need and to ensure social care is properly funded to deal with the extra costs of the pandemic. The Government must also consider giving additional funding directly to care homes to ensure they get the PPE they need."
Derek Luckhurst, owner and chairman of Agincare, defended the increase in fees.
He said: “We are not asking residents to pay for PPE.
“We are asking them to contribute towards significantly increased care costs, of which PPE represents less than 30%.
“We have additional staffing costs to cope with the extra demands of the coronavirus outbreak, we also have statutory sick pay costs.
“We are experiencing about 10% of staff off sick, that amounts to about 400 staff each receiving £98.85 a week, that’s £38,000 a week. We then have to staff the care home, which means bringing in agency staff to cover, which typically costs more than our staff.
“This is a temporary measure and it will be reviewed on a monthly basis, and any additional costs will be considered.”
Three-quarters of social care and temporary contract nurses say they have not been offered a coronavirus test, according to research by the Royal College of Nursing. Of those who have not been offered a test, almost half said they did not know how to access testing.
