Open letter to Eastbourne adult welfare

Dear Sally

I am writing to you concerning my mother Hazel
I am not happy with any arrangement that involves the Care at home company for a number of reasons.

Firstly I have found them to be totally incompetent on a number of levels particularly in respect to mums medical need s but also her basic needs of friendship and companionship.

On a medical level they repeatedly botched mums catheter procedure. The catheter valve was left open on three occasions, each time Hazel was left laying in urine which was cleaned up by the private care team appropriated by me. Additionally the visits were not sufficient to empty the urine bag as required which also led to urine being spread through the house and Hazel was found by a member of the private care team on more than one occasion standing in the kitchen in a puddle of urine leaking from a full bag. Who cleaned it up. The “care at home” staff were clearly for the most part incapable of following Hazels medical routine as she was given a large difficult to swallow calcium pill every day until a  competent employee noticed the mistake (the pill was weekly) and Hazel was given her pills on a daily roster put together by the pharmacy staff, Why wasn’t this in place before?, I’m led to believe your department   is responsible for assessing these arrangements following the patients departure from hospital.

Secondly I found them to be inadequate on a social level. To be working with an elderly and extremely vulnerable individual, hazel was forced to leave her door open all night because she was unable to unlock the door safely particularly first thing in the morning. The staff at care at home were frequently late and often didn’t show up at all. The late night staff were often young men who had to deal with an extremely frail 90 year old lady in some of the most humiliating procedures.

Thirdly Hazels dietary requirements were not adequately met by the care team and to be fair couldn’t be expected to, however, with in the wider role of your department I feel it was another fail on your behalf that the private care team had to pick up on this and appear to have helped get hazels bowel difficulties manageable..

My final two points are the most serious.

When we spoke on the  23rd of December we discussed a number of things among them being the difficulty you had getting the care at home company to work Christmas and new year. You actually by my recollection claimed they refused to service my mother which failed in her duty of care to her under their contract.

As you would know Christmas and new year are a particularly difficut time for people alone as my mum was over Christmas day and boxing day, in fact over the entire Christmas period. Without any support from family except for the most basic needs (my sister no longer talks to her mother) I found it necessary to finance the private home care team personally over this period.

The fact that this was overlooked and only brought to my attention on the 22^nd of December with very little time to arrange anything was another epic fail and significantly drained my resources.

Also discussed was the issue of an amount of 80 pounds going missing from mums flat on or around the 21^st of  December which many people were made aware of. Coincidently this money went missing around the same time as a complaint was made by the care at home staff concernng the skype camera being on so I can talk to my mother and they turned the camera away from hazel and didn’t replace it regularly which I thought at the very least was thoughtless.

If the care at home team are to be employed contrary to our agreement for a direct care package then I would feel obliged to inform the police of the missing money. You may have already informed the police in line with your care of vulnerable clients protocol. I’m not sure how it works in adult care, in the schools I work in reporting of threats to vulnerable people (students) is mandatory regardless of the students feelings.

I’m sure you understand my concerns, I was led to believe that the codes on the outside entrance key safe were changed following the theft however to my knowledge they are unchanged, Why the disregard for Hazel health and safety.

Furthermore I would like to point out that when my mother was assessed following her relaease from hospital she wasn’t offerred any support technology at all to help her gain strength as she recovered. I replaced her mattress after the incompetence of the care at home staff left the bed soaked with urine and unusable, I provided a wheelchair, I also provided the lift chair, table, and arranged the flat into a logical order. I also emptied my mothers urine bag more times than I care to remember in the most dire situations. I am told that this is the job of the hospital and am reliably informed that Wendy and Dudley Blois stated to the staff that everything was arranged at home. This was clearly untrue as the flat was as it was left, even the stool she fell over was still in front of the chair

I believe however that it is the responsibility of your department to functionally assess mums needs at home.

It is worth bearing in mind that following hazels fall and   Wendy and Dudley prompty left hazels bank card with her grandson who no longer speaks to his grandmother either and jumped on a plane to Australia for a holiday with her Brother who no longer speaks to his mother either. I add this just to provide some context to the “caring family just want whats best for her “ scenario. This is not the case

The situation with care at home is most unsatisfactory and see the only solution as the direct payment option.

I don’t feel my mother is safe in their care. Too many different people come in and out of the flat and no one can be held accountable as is the case with the missing money. The private care team that has been employed to help me have been respectful informative friendly and caring. The entire team consists of four people that I know bun me and speak to on skype without any complaints on skype when I happen to ring while they are there. This helps me to stay informed of mums general health and wellbeing.

Every time my mother has been hospitalised or there is deterioration of her condition they contact me on skype so I can be of some support from here when my mother feels a bit down

Over Christmas when mum was alone these people found time from there own families to spend a short unpaid time together and give my mother a Christmas morning. What price do you put on that? I remind you that my sister that is so concerned apparently with her mums welfare had no compulsion to visit over Christmas at all.

I need the private care team to continue and I need support from your department and between the three of us ( provided my sister releases some of her mothers money) we should be able to provide in my opinion three 1 hour visits per day split basically three ways which amounts to 105.00 pounds per week which I can probably afford until my mother recovers. I would imagine that is cheaper than the proposed arrangement starting Monday with care at home which is absolutely unacceptable given there total failure to follow through with there contractual obligations to care for my mother over the Christmas period amongst the other things outlined above.

Its not convenient to ring now however I hope to hear its all been sorted by Monday.

Kind Regards Mark