13 June 2010

By Tom Peterkin

PRESSURE was last night mounting on Alex Salmond's government to re-examine Scotland's free personal care policy amid fears that it is too expensive to maintain.

Scotland on Sunday can reveal that a Scottish Government initiative looking at paying for the elderly population has found health experts and local government officials are warning ministers the policy can no longer be paid for.

 

There is also a growing belief that alternative methods of funding the policy such as introducing an insurance scheme must be explored to ensure people are looked after properly in old age.

A report published last week summarised the views expressed at a recent meeting of the government's "Reshaping Care" initiative, which was set up by the health minister Shona Robison.

"Free personal care is no longer affordable," was one of the conclusions recorded by the document, which reported the views of council officials, medical charities and health board officials who attended the meeting at Pittodrie Stadium, Aberdeen.

The experts who gathered for the government-sponsored meeting also reported that a "UK-wide insurance scheme should be considered".

The existence of the document came to light at the end of a week that saw the architect of the policy, Lord Sutherland, admit that free care ought to be reviewed.

Lord Sutherland said the health service should not be "sacrosanct" when it came to cuts, adding that free care had to "take its chances" against other policies.

Free personal care was the flagship policy of the first Labour/Lib Dem coalition. Since then it has been enthusiastically adopted by the SNP government.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "The Scottish Government remains absolutely committed to free personal care."

Next >