Ready to Throw in the Towel

Care at the frontline is under real pressure.

Prema Fairbourn, chair of the Suffolk association of independent care providers, runs Primary Homecare. They provide carers to go into people's homes.

She said: "At one point I had about 80 members of staff but that has dropped now to about 47. I think staff have had a big rethink since the pandemic and their work/life balance is more important to them.”

While there are fewer carers in the industry, Ms Fairbourn says: "The demand is great and the backlog in the hospital lists is huge and I don't know how they are going to service all those care packages." She says falling staff numbers and rising demand is "impossible to reconcile".

"I've been in the industry for 36 years and I've never come across anything like this, it's the worst that it's been and to be honest I'm ready to throw in the towel."