Quality Care - Minimum Wages

brineybay

Having done some work in the health sector, I regularly receive news about jobs in healthcare related positions in my local area (South UK).

I have recently heard about two things, which have upset me deeply and which I feel are serious problems our society faces with regard to decent health care.

The first thing is this - I have been made aware that in some pharmacies in the area, dispensing assistants (the people who's job it is to get the correct medication for each prescription and check the the drug is correct) are being paid the minimum wage.

Minimum wage for a worker aged over 21 is currently £6.08 per hour, rising to £6.19 per hour from October 2012.

Of course, prescriptions are double checked by a pharmacist (the going rate for pharmacists in the area is about £22 per hour), but it does seem unacceptable to me that someone who has gone through a lot of training to be able to correctly identify drugs in a pharmacy could be paid so poorly.

I am not suggesting that all pharmacy dispensers get paid so lowly, but I am surprised that some clearly do get paid min wage for this kind of work.

What's more, I recently saw a job advertisement for a position as a carer for elderly people. The job required, among other things, that the successful applicant would be required to feed elderly people, wash and dress elderly people and look after them in their own homes as a carer "in a respectful and dignified way".

As for me, I would never, ever want to wash and dress elderly, immobile people who cannot look after themselves. I will be old myself one day, but I would not in a million years want to wash and dress other old people who have no relation to me. I ask if you would really ever want to to this kind of work?

The advertisement listed all the excellent and caring qualities the applicant would have to have. I image one would have to have a very caring attitude to want to take such a job. So, what would our loveable carer get paid - minimum wage, of course.

Let's be serious for a moment. We all know that there are jobs in this world, even in a recession, where one does not have to do such things as wash other peoples' bodies, and you can get paid better than the very minimum our society says is acceptable.

What baffles me is this - how can anyone expect to get quality care from someone on minimum wage. More to the point, if you were an elderly, immobile person struggling to look after yourself, would you really want to be looked after by a minimum wage slave.

I, for one, would not.

I just makes me think what a screwed up society we live in, where those who look after the sick and old get paid so pitifully. Can this system be sustained?

The horrible treatment of people with disabilities at Winterbourne View, as exposed by the BBC's Panorama is incredibly shocking. But then again, when you are offering the minimum wage to look after people who need serious care, can we really be surprised at the quality of people who apply (and get offered) such work.

Sorry to bring everyone down, but I just wanted to know what other people think. Maybe I'm being too pessimistic, but it just doesn't seem right at all to me, especially when I have a friend who works in a supermarket and gets paid more than the min wage for working on a checkout.

How can we expect people on the minimum wage to look after such vulnerable people? Can this be justified?

Your thoughts, please...

Torry_Quine

I'm surprised that you didn't know this. The vast majority of care staff are paid minimum wage or just above.

I totally agree that it's very wrong but until the whole sector is totally overhauled nothing will change.

marybelle01

Torry_Quine wrote: »

I'm surprised that you didn't know this. The vast majority of care staff are paid minimum wage or just above.

I totally agree that it's very wrong but until the whole sector is totally overhauled nothing will change.

And they didn't used to be. The reason they are paid so little is because the whole sector was, and still is being overhauled. With public support. It is called "cuts".

Torry_Quine

marybelle01 wrote: »

And they didn't used to be. The reason they are paid so little is because the whole sector was, and still is being overhauled. With public support. It is called "cuts".

The low pay is nothing new in this sector though and certainly not because of the recent cuts. My cousin actually got a pay rise when the minimum wage came in.

marybelle01

Torry_Quine wrote: »

The low pay is nothing new in this sector though and certainly not because of the recent cuts. My cousin actually got a pay rise when the minimum wage came in.

In most authorities I know of (including NHS) it very much has been the case. I am not saying they were highly paid - but commissioning has led to much lower pay.

Hmm71

Until the end of last year my sister worked nights in a BUPA care home and she was on minimum wage, working with elderly people suffering from dementia. I always wondered how much BUPA charged each client per week.

marybelle01

Hmm71 wrote: »

Until the end of last year my sister worked nights in a BUPA care home and she was on minimum wage, working with elderly people suffering from dementia. I always wondered how much BUPA charged each client per week.

£350 to £750 per week* for standard accommodation and personal care range
£500 to £1,100 per week* for nursing care

That was in May 2010:(

SueC_2

Absolutely valid as all of these comments are, and much as I believe carers deserve to earn more than is currently the going rate, there is another angle on it.

If you were old and/or frail, would you prefer to be cared for by someone who was purely doing it for the money, or by someone who was doing because they genuinely cared.

I think if you speak to pretty much any carer you will find they don't do it for the money, they do it out of a genuine desire to help.

And yes, that makes them better people than many.

marybelle01

SueC wrote: »

Absolutely valid as all of these comments are, and much as I believe carers deserve to earn more than is currently the going rate, there is another angle on it.

If you were old and/or frail, would you prefer to be cared for by someone who was purely doing it for the money, or by someone who was doing because they genuinely cared.

I think if you speak to pretty much any carer you will find they don't do it for the money, they do it out of a genuine desire to help.

And yes, that makes them better people than many.

It would be nice, of course, if they could have a bit of both! But I agree - as the OP astutely observed, some people wouldn't do it no matter what the money. I admire the people who do it, and more so because many of them do it for so little. But it is also not the most skilled job in the world and many people, especially women, do it for nothing - at both ends of the life cycle.

Torry_Quine

SueC wrote: »

Absolutely valid as all of these comments are, and much as I believe carers deserve to earn more than is currently the going rate, there is another angle on it.

If you were old and/or frail, would you prefer to be cared for by someone who was purely doing it for the money, or by someone who was doing because they genuinely cared.

I think if you speak to pretty much any carer you will find they don't do it for the money, they do it out of a genuine desire to help.

And yes, that makes them better people than many.

I can totally see your argument but to turn it around many caring people can't do it because of the low wages.

I'd like to think that carers do it out of a gemuine desire to help but it can often be the flexible hours or the availability of work that is the deciding factor.

SueC_2

Torry_Quine wrote: »

I can totally see your argument

It really wasn't an argument, as I hoped my first paragraph made clear - I absolutely and utterly 100% agree that the wages paid to carers are pitiful and should be increased.