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On the face of it, providing a 'Care Badge' to all carers working in Care Homes and in the community, sounds like a gimmick, but perhaps a good one. It shows respect for our care workers across the country and allows them to identify themselves as being a care worker, and to be prioritised in the head of the supermarkets queues.
Now when the cost of PPE has risen dramatically and eating into the budgets of Care Homes, many of which are run on an extremely tight budget, and the average pay of care workers is the minimum wage, with many being below that; asking them to then pay for a badge which is meant to be a gesture of goodwill and respect to them, will be seen as absolutely appalling to majority of the public. The website explains the ordering and cost involved: 'Orders can be placed online at https://www.thecarebadge.org/buy-now/. Badges cost £1 plus VAT, including P&P and there is a minimum order size of £100 with a choice of three fixing styles; butterfly pin, magnetic and brooch to suit both care and non-care settings. Display trays cost £2.50 plus VAT and orders of 500 badges or more receive a free display tray and become CARE badge Partners. Payment is only via online bank transfer.' With social media just now having caught on to what many see as profiteering from the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK, there seems to be a problem with the ordering of the badges. This is the message you get when trying to do so from the Care Badge website:
Laughable in one sense, given the current serious problems of the non-availability of PPE and the stocks running down in many NHS Hospitals and the none delivery of stocks to Care Homes across the country. So is the Care Badge also been held up by supply and distribution problems similar to the excuse given by the government for the lack of PPE? Or perhaps it is the same excuse for the shortage of ventilators the government claims is actually a surplus, caused by the fact that they have not been manufactured in the numbers to meet the demand? Or is it that people see this for what it is - a pathetic attempt to divert the public from the truth of the inept management of PPE and ventilators, and to make a profit from the sale of 35p badges for the inflated price of £1.20!
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Well, there is just one thing - they have to be bought for £1.20 by each individual Care Home and the minimum order order is 100!