Need to understand scale of problem

WE WERE recently plugged into Hillingdon Council’s Home Care system, and from our standpoint the service so far has been less than satisfactory ( Know your rights – get our new guide, Letters, Wednesday, December 10).

First, the council’s nominated care provider company did not carry out the ‘care plan assessment’ that should have been done before carers started to visit us. Therefore there was no programme in place and the initial carers had no idea what was required. Carers sometimes fail to arrive at the appointed time, or not at all, with no telephone call to advise the recipient that their carer would be late or not arriving at all.

On a number of occasions I telephoned the care company and asked to speak to someone in authority in order to register my

complaints, but on a couple of occasions I was told that no one was available to speak to me.

I could leave a message and someone would phone me back, but twice they did not. In the end I resorted to sending emails, so at least I have a record of trying to register my complaints.

I also spoke to social services, my local councillor and Carer’s UK Uxbridge office, the latter saying that since the introduction of a ‘new home care policy’, they had received a number of complaints and were logging them.

It would seem that the company that looks after us does not have sufficient staff to deal with the number of visits required of them, and the carers do not seem to be allowed enough time to carry out [their duties] and then get to the next client by the appointed time.

Might I suggest the Gazette should publish an open letter inviting people to register any concerns, in order to get some understanding of the size of the problem?