Sir, I note the rather negative comments on the Bridge House Care Home in Abingdon, in a recent issue of the Abingdon Herald and I would like to put on record that as a resident there for the last three months I have encountered much kindness and good care.

As your column reports, minor “start-up” defects are being addressed by the management team — and “brownie points” to them for their speedy and willing acknowledgement. I would like to add some comments possibly of interest to some of your readers who may be struggling with the problem of finding ‘care’. Some older people are very difficult to keep safe and may require one-to-one care — a fact I know at first hand from my service as a nurse in various dementia wards.

And I also know that one-to-one care is incredibly expensive — in my mother’s case at the then going rate of £8 per hour, one-to-one team-care would have cost over £1,300 per week and that was many years ago.

The outcome? Care was kept within the family and treated as a ‘pay-back’ for the nurture so freely given many decades earlier.

In a nutshell, care within the family circle will be a good and affordable option in many cases (assuming all other family members take their fair share of any inconvenience caused). Another point, the cry from critics of the present system is often: ‘Well, get more staff’. But where are vast armies of wonderful carers to be found (without increasing costs)?

Care within the family may come at very little cost but care homes have to employ carers. Now, many carers may be ‘angels’ but they are also people who have to be paid because they too have living costs, just like the rest of the population. Finally, if you do find a good care home (and Bridge House is a fine example), then treat it as a ‘treasure’. (But remember, if minute-by-minute care is required, then special arrangements may have to be made).

Jim Hall

Bridge House Care Home

Abingdon