Old people auctioned off to care homes on the internet

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At least a dozen local authorities are listing vulnerable people's details
Ages and care needs including medication sent to up to 100 care firms
They pick which people to bid for - and cheapest offer nearly always wins
Expert Ros Altmann: 'eBay-style' system 'awful' and 'just uncivilised'
Health group leader: 'It's an absolute disgrace - it's like a cattle market'

By Ruth Lythe and Claire Duffin For The Daily Mail

Published: 17:56 EST, 8 February 2015 | Updated: 06:42 EST, 9 February 2015

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The elderly and disabled are being ‘put up for auction’ by local councils on ‘eBay-style’ websites, with care firms then bidding to offer them a bed.

At least a dozen local authorities are listing vulnerable people’s details – including their age and what care and medication they need – before inviting bids from care homes in the area.

The bidding is sometimes open for only a few hours, at other times it can last for two or three days. The cheapest offer often wins.

Cattle market: At least a dozen councils are listing vulnerable people’s details – including their age and what care and medication they need – on eBay-like software and inviting bids from local care homes (file photo)

Critics last night said the system was akin to ‘auctioning your granny’ and a ‘cattle market’, saying sensitive decisions about an elderly resident’s final years are being made by a computer programme that is only interested in costs.

It also means the patient or their family often does not see the care home, and that those running the home do not see the patient before they arrive.

One council has boasted of reducing care costs by almost a fifth using the system.

The auction-style process allows councils to circulate anonymised details of individuals to a large number of suppliers who then bid in an online auction for the contract.

As many as 100 providers can bid before the software produces a shortlist of the most favourable bids. Shortlisted bidders are then told where they are ranked in the process.

Online: The system uses a software called SProc.Net, which has been devised by Matrix SCM, a company based in Milton Keynes which last year said it was in talks with 30 other councils

If they are in second position, they can adjust their bid – either by lowering the price or offering extra care services – so that they can move up to first.

Councils say quality is the first consideration, but figures obtained under a Freedom of Information request show 92 per cent of care packages commissioned on the system over a six-month period were awarded to the bidder with the lowest price, BBC 5 Live revealed.

Government adviser Ros Altmann: 'These eBay-style sites highlight the funding crisis for care'

Ros Altmann, a Government adviser and independent expert on care for the elderly, said: ‘These eBay-style sites highlight the funding crisis for elderly care. It is awful. The idea of bidding for a person is just uncivilised. These are not parcels, they are people.’

Janet Morrison, chief executive of the charity Independent Age, said: ‘Do we really want to treat older people as a “product” to be bought and sold this way? We are concerned that older people’s needs will lose out to price as the main reason for selecting a home.’

At least 12 councils use the auction-style systems. They include Kent County Council, Devon County Council, Southend Borough Council and Birmingham City Council. Dozens more are expected to follow suit.

Care companies bidding to offer a place have to state what services they can provide and at what cost before a computer system decides which company is the winner of the ‘contract’. Councils say the winning home is not forced upon patients, and that it is not always the cheapest bid that wins, with quality of care being the main consideration.

Birmingham has been using an online auction system since 2012 and says it has reduced its spending on care by almost a fifth.

It uses a software called SProc.Net, which has been devised by Matrix SCM, a company based in Milton Keynes which last year said it was in talks with 30 other councils.

Radio 5 Live also found that in some cases in Birmingham elderly people were being sent to homes which won the online auction despite being ‘zero-rated’ by the council on its own 0-100 scale of care quality – where scores under 60 are ‘poor’.

Les Latchman, chairman of the Birmingham Care Consortium, which represents care homes in Birmingham and commissioned the FOI request, said the system was forcing providers to offer lower and lower prices to secure the contract.

Speaking out: Emma Knight said her brother James, who had learning difficulties, was one persona affected

‘This reverse tendering is something that compromises quality and undermines ethical practice,’ he said. ‘If you are going to keep lowering the price, something has got to give.’

Mike Gimson, chairman of Moundsley Healthcare Group, said: ‘It’s an absolute disgrace what is going on in Birmingham. It is more like Hereford cattle market than it is a caring service for the elderly.’

A Birmingham council spokesman said: ‘The well-being of all our service users is paramount and we only award care packages to providers who are able to demonstrate that they can meet the needs of individuals.’

Another critic of the system is Emma Knight, whose brother James, 46, has learning difficulties and had lived in the same care home in Exeter for 28 years. When it closed, Devon County Council circulated his details by emails to care homes which were then invited to bid to offer him a place.

The details on the email included information about his ‘mood and well-being’ and medication. His family say other information which could easily identify him was also included.

Miss Knight, 44, of Ottery St Mary, said: ‘We had no idea his details were being shared. This sort of tendering should be stopped.’