My dad has carers (x 2 each visit) 4 x daily, for which he pays almost 2k per 4 weeks, so not cheap!! (self funding). After a month with them coming at certain times, agreed with me and the manager, a couple of weeks ago, I called the care manager to ask to change the lunch time visit from 12:30 to 12 and the afternoon visit from 4:30 to 4. The manager said she couldnt change it for that week as rotas had already been done, but would set it up for the following week, which was fine. So last week, every day, they came at 12, and then at 4. Great - all working well.
Yesterday we had a barbecue with friends in the afternoon. The carers came at 12, put dad into his wheelchair, brought him into the garden to join us. At 4, everyone left, and me and dad sat, and sat, and sat..... at 4:45, I called the after hours number and said nobody had come, and they came 10 minutes later. 55 minutes late (if they were due to come at 4, or 25 mins late if they were due to come at 4:30...), no phone call, nothing.
Today we decided to take him out for lunch (making the most of the beautiful sunshine!) so we booked the wheelchair taxi for 12:30 because carers would come 12 - 12:30 and get him into wheelchair. By 12:40, taxi outside, no carers..... so my daughter phoned the care co office where the manager told her that it was too difficult to get the carers in for 12 and 4 because another client had those times and she (the other client) was determined not to change her times.....! To which my daughter said, we wouldnt expect her to change her times, but does that mean you only have enough carers to cover one slot for each time period because we really want the times agreed - and last week, you did them for us. Now suddenly, and without discussing with us, you have changed the times back to the original times. The manager got really stroppy and said she can't do anything about it, and the other client was adamant, but she would go and 'speak to her' this evening to see if she would change the times back but if she wouldn't then, my dad would have to stick to the times they could come......
bearing in mind that my dad pays all this money for the care package, I can't quite believe that the care company are dictating to us in this way!
So, cancel the taxi, go and tell this poor old man we had to cancel the taxi, which had been waiting for 15 minutes by then, and we would have to sit in the garden with sandwiches after all.
So sad, so unprofessional - or am I wrong?? I don't quite know what to do next!
Should i just put up with them calling the shots, or what?
Thanks for reading!
Trisha
Yesterday we had a barbecue with friends in the afternoon. The carers came at 12, put dad into his wheelchair, brought him into the garden to join us. At 4, everyone left, and me and dad sat, and sat, and sat..... at 4:45, I called the after hours number and said nobody had come, and they came 10 minutes later. 55 minutes late (if they were due to come at 4, or 25 mins late if they were due to come at 4:30...), no phone call, nothing.
Today we decided to take him out for lunch (making the most of the beautiful sunshine!) so we booked the wheelchair taxi for 12:30 because carers would come 12 - 12:30 and get him into wheelchair. By 12:40, taxi outside, no carers..... so my daughter phoned the care co office where the manager told her that it was too difficult to get the carers in for 12 and 4 because another client had those times and she (the other client) was determined not to change her times.....! To which my daughter said, we wouldnt expect her to change her times, but does that mean you only have enough carers to cover one slot for each time period because we really want the times agreed - and last week, you did them for us. Now suddenly, and without discussing with us, you have changed the times back to the original times. The manager got really stroppy and said she can't do anything about it, and the other client was adamant, but she would go and 'speak to her' this evening to see if she would change the times back but if she wouldn't then, my dad would have to stick to the times they could come......
bearing in mind that my dad pays all this money for the care package, I can't quite believe that the care company are dictating to us in this way!
So, cancel the taxi, go and tell this poor old man we had to cancel the taxi, which had been waiting for 15 minutes by then, and we would have to sit in the garden with sandwiches after all.
So sad, so unprofessional - or am I wrong?? I don't quite know what to do next!
Should i just put up with them calling the shots, or what?
Thanks for reading!
Trisha
