ELDERLY people who need respite care in Kent may be sent abroad to recover because it is cheaper. Kent County Council Social Services is looking at the possibility of sending the county's elderly and infirm to France and Belgium for short stay care.

The county council can no longer afford to meet the costs charged by private residential care homes in Kent and the rest of the country and is looking abroad. A final decision will depend on the results of an investigation by Kent Social Services staff into the cost, quality of services, capacity, and dietary requirements offered by residential care homes in Europe.

Peter Gilroy, head of KCC social services, said residential care was cheaper in Europe and if the quality and standard of care was acceptable, and there were no language problems, elderly people could be sent abroad.

Mr Gilroy said: "We have reached a point where we simply cannot afford the sort of prices now being wanted by the private nursing home sector. I am not saying they are not reasonable but I simply cannot afford them. If I did pay them we would be in very serious trouble financially."

Kent County Council spends £26 million a year on providing the elderly with places in nursing homes in Kent, but believes it would need at least another £7 million from the Government to cope.

Mr Gilroy said the county council was taking advantage of its excellent relations with the continent, which had resulted in other similar schemes in the past.

He added that if the scheme proved a success there could be opportunities to send other clients abroad such as people with learning difficulties that need residential care.

The leader of Kent County Council, Cllr Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, has written to the Secretary of State for Health, Alan Milburn, highlighting Kent's impossible position and calling for more money for residential care.

Nadra Ahmed, chair of both the Kent Care Homes Association and National Care Homes Association, said care homeowners in Kent were in crisis with home closures left, right and centre.

She added: "It's an appalling indictment of our society to send people at the end of their lives to another country with a completely different culture is very wrong."

Labour opposition leader Cllr Mike Eddy said he had misgivings about the proposal and predicted that it was likely to be resisted by the relatives of elderly people.

"Mr Gilroy is clearly a very creative director. But I am unsure how this will go down with relatives who may find themselves having to travel abroad to see elderly members of their family. There would also be problems with the language."