President calls out spiralling costs of old people’s homes

President Seguro has called out the spiralling costs of old people’s homes in a country where old people already vastly outnumber the young.

Just in the last 12 months, monthly costs have risen by between €200-€250, he stressed. “This is a sum that doesn’t gel with people’s incomes. It is a sum that thousands of families will try to meet every month with great anxiety.”

The head of state was speaking at the 15th national congress of the ‘Misericórdias’ charity in Braga. He also warned of the shortage of old people’s homes, the demographic winter that this country is facing (and has been facing for decades), and the increase in waiting lists for a place in an old people’s home.

Manuel Lemos, president of the Union of Misericórdias, has dubbed the situation “a social tsunami”. President Seguro says he prefers the description ‘ticking time bomb’. But whatever the imagery, it ain’t good.

The president was referring, of course, to subsidised old people’s homes (yet another area of health given short-shrift by governments). Private facilities have similar problems, but with several more ‘naughts’ added to them.

The gist of the speech was to try and wake central government up to a situation that cannot improve without financial/ investment input.

“We are among the oldest countries in Europe, and this situation will worsen in the coming decades,” said the president – using the occasion to stress how vital immigrants are in this sphere. “It is immigrants who care for our elderly,” he said – r5tttttttttt6referring to an interview in which Manuel Lemos noted that “in the Alentejo region, all the Misericórdias have staff from six to seven different nationalities”.

“It is they, often working in silence, who sustain what would be a social collapse without their presence. It is these people, nationals and immigrants alike, to whom we also owe a word of thanks and recognition for their work, which is often little recognised by society, but also for their dedication, their care, their love and commitment to those they serve, which goes far beyond what can be expected in a job.”

Emphasising that it is the charitable organisations that “continue to be present where the state ‘sometimes arrives late, provides too little, or is simply absent’, António José Seguro highlighted the importance of these institutions in local employment, healthcare and social services.

“The figures speak for themselves and need to be stated, because they are rarely mentioned together. I’ll mention just a few: 388 charities, 158,000 people supported every day. 52,000 staff, 21 hospitals, 508 residential care homes for the elderly, 399 nurseries and pre-school facilities, 192 long-term care units.”

In short, the Misericórdias are “the backbone of solidarity” in Portugal, he said.

“It is the country that works where, often, the Misericórdias are the only institution with a policy of community outreach. And in many inland areas of our country, they are the main source of employment.”

Source material: Correio da Manhã/ LUSA