Scottish Care, which represents aged care providers, is blaming a staffing crisis, including a 31% shortage of nurses, for the closures, The Times reports.

One provider said they had shut two homes, including one with full occupancy, because the difficulty in recruiting nurses and costs of hiring agency staff were resulting in the homes making a loss.

The country now has just 37,278 aged care beds, down by 468 since 2016 and 800 since 2008.

The flow-on effects are dire too. NHS Scotland has released figures showing one in every 13 hospital beds is filled by a patient well enough to be discharged with around 25% of these delayed discharge patients waiting for aged care beds while a third are waiting for community care.

Could we see a similar situation here if the Government’s workforce strategy fails to hit its mark?