Anyone have problems with home-care agencies?

GanAnim

I am not sure if I am posting this in the right forum.

I have a long-term illness and have been awarded some temporary hours of a PA service by the HSE. I am getting this via a private home care agency.

I have had this care before and have had problems since the beginning and wish I had tackled it before now. They messed me about a bit before with appointments, but eventually that got sorted, but I still had another major problem. I was getting less hours than I should be (that they would have gotten money for). For example I would have an appointment 3-5pm but the home care worker would have to be at another appointment at 5pm so I would get less time than I had asked for.

Sometimes my appointments would be cut short by almost half and hour (out of a 2 hour slot). But this seemed to happen even when the care worker didn't have an appointment immediately after mine, so I think the worker might have been chancing their arm a bit as well (and if they know time-keeping is lax in the company I can see why this attitude might filter down).

I thought they would account for these "missing" minutes at the end, but when I rang to find out how many hours I had left they had claimed for the full time I had booked and not the time that had been given.

There is no paper work that I see and no time sheets that I sign. The home care worker signs in online but I do not see what they input. Unfortunately as I had not kept a proper record of comings and goings I felt making a complaint would get me nowhere, and I also had worries at the time that somehow it would work against me (either causing ill feeling between me and the worker, and at the time I was not sure whether it was the agency or the worker that was pulling the piss and didn't want the worker to get the blame for something the company were doing) but now I wish I had done something earlier as the behaviour has continued.

I had a break where I wasn't getting any help and it recently started up again. They let me down today and no one came. I had to ring myself to find out what was going on, and I still don't know! They didn't seem to know in the office either when I rang. They said they would ring the worker and get her to ring me but I heard nothing back. This is how they were before when I started the hours (for example, multiple times they didn't make appointments when I had booked, even tried to blame me some of the time and make out that I had not booked, though it got sorted in the end).

I know anything genuine could have happened today, but I think it does smack a bit of treating me like a mug (and I am a bit of a mug to be honest), especially in light of previous behaviour. The worker also left early last week (tried to leave even earlier but I managed to keep them for a while) so I was already annoyed about that. I know this person had no appointments after me so the desire/pressure to leave was coming from them rather than the agency. So I have less sympathy for the care worker if they get caught out now.

Overall it has been a great help to me to get the hours, and if it wasn't for the lack of communications and bizarre time-keeping I would be happy, but it annoys me that the HSE is paying for something they are not getting. I wonder how many other patients this company is doing this to? What about someone senile or somehow mentally incapacitated, they might not even notice the anomaly in time-keeping?

Anyway I would be interested to hear if this is a common problem. I am going to complain directly to the company about what happened today and also ask for time sheets for both myself and the care-worker to sign. If what is on the time sheet doesn't tally with what the hours the office is saying were done it will be easier for the HSE to investigate it. I also have a social worker so will talk to him about it.

I know there was a Prime Time documentary exposing this sort of thing a few years ago. From my experience it doesn't look like it has changed.

cocker5

OP,

I have first-hand dealings with Caremark.

My dad had a major stroke 15 years ago and when my mum passed away 2 years ago (she was his primary carer) the HSE steeped in to help my sister and I with caring for my dad and enabling him to stay at home. he not very badly affected, as in he’s not bed bound or anything but his left hand side is very weakened from the stroke along with brain damage and very slow movement. So all of this was taken into account and he gets one hour per day for a PA 6 days a week. The carers are normally there to do the following things for him… out on a wash, make his bed, safety when he is showering (as in someone in the house in case he needs assistance), make his lunch etc. – nothing too crazy. This was put in place to try and keep him in his home long term etc., as has now only 63 so they consider him too young for a nursing home (and I agree). sorry for the rambling that’s just a bit of background etc. so as to give you the picture.

ok on Caremark…. my dad’s hours started in July 2012 when my mam was diagnosed with cancer.
Initially they were great, coming on time, doing loads of stuff to help out etc… caring and working the full hour – they were great.
after my mam passed away they became very sloppy, arriving late, leaving early, some of them instead of doing stuff that he needed done in the house the would sit down and chat with him for the full hour – while good company for him, useless when it came to actually helping him.

So after a month or so my sister and I called halt to it, infact we went mad.
Like you said HSE are paying good money for these hours and not getting value for money, neither was my dad getting the assistance he needed. We actually had a lady steal medication for him at one point. they should not be cutting your 2 hours short REARDLESS if they have another call to do, Caremark (or whatever company the HSE are using in your area) should plans calls so they have adequate time to travel between calls – your services should not be affected.

We called a meeting with the Caremark manager, we had kept a record of whom came what was carried out, hours done etc. there was nothing they could say but that they will look into it.

The next week (and since then) each week my dad received a weekly work sheet of who’s coming, and what time etc. – after each session they both sign.
left on the counter top at all times is a full list of stuff that needs to be done, if the regular girl isn’t available etc.

Now I will say the lady my dad has had now for the past year is excellent, she’s always on time stays the full length of time and does loads of stuff – so we could be happier with her as a carer but not Caremark on the whole.
its badly run, I believe the staff are not treated the best etc.

if / when she can’t make it (only once in a while) if I left it to Caremark my dad wouldn’t get the hour back at all – so I call the office and HOUND them. The rule is you cannot carry over any missed hours from month to month so if your due time you MUST seek this during the current month.

If I were you id keep a log for 2 weeks then call a meeting and tell them this isn’t on, it’s not acceptable and the sooner you point this out the sooner they will realise there is no messing you about.

OP im sorry you are dealing with this yourself my dad has my sister and I sort this out for my dad most of the time he isn’t aware of the hassle that’s going on in the background!

Best of luck – I hope things improve for you X

neemish

OP, Can't add anything except to say that if you don't feel confident in talking to the company or HSE, do you have someone who can advocate on your behalf? Or else the Irish Patients Advocacy. Sometimes you need to shout loudly as the poster above said, and having someone who can support you in in that might be helpful.

GanAnim

Thanks for the replies guys. Well I am even more angry than I was yesterday. They blamed me for the mistake (surprise surprise) and claimed I had never booked it.

When I booked the first appointment she had asked me if I wanted to block-book that time slot for the next few months. I said yes but that I might make the odd change to it from time to time but would let them know in advance if I wanted to do this. So I took it that I was booked in from this conversation. This was the impression I was left with at the end of the conversation.

It is possible she misunderstood me, or I her, but I think they probably just forgot to add me to the computer system (this happened a few times before, where I am positive I had booked and that they didn't add me to the system. This happened a few times after someone seemed to leave the company, and I think there was a bit of chaos for a while, but it seemed to settle down then).

Anyway she was sticking to her guns that I was in the wrong, but in favour of my interpretation is that the worker seemed to know that I had block-booked her when she came last week (she brought it up, not me) and knew what time I had booked her in for. She mentioned it as she wanted to ask if it would be ok to change it a bit because of something she wanted to do (I said this would be ok and she said she would ring to confirm, but didn't ring on the day and initially I thought she just was going ahead with the time she wanted). I think I will say no in future to any accommodations like this as it seems to encourage people to mess me about.

I think that for some reason the admin person had the block booking written down somewhere, where the care-worker saw it, but never put it on the computer system.

None of this though would excuse not ringing me back yesterday once they knew I was not booked in. They didn't ring today or answer the e-mail I sent last night either, I rang them to find out what was going on.

They have booked me in for this week anyway and next week. I am going to ask for an e-mail address or text number to send/confirm future bookings to so that I can have bookings in writing so they cannot try to blame me again.

Someone is also supposed to call out at some stage as well to do a care-plan (I hate corporate expressions like this, I let's hope they don't mention bloody mission statements! "money for nothing" would be a good one). This meeting could be useful as I should be given information now that I should have been given from the beginning, and it should include the time-sheets. Very weird that they didn't have this meeting with me months ago.

I keep remembering other things they screwed up before. I will post about them again.

I am going to see how the meeting goes, keep a record of everything and then talk to the social worker (who can advise me what to do next). I am so pissed off at this point that I am going to let the HSE know anyway even if I manage to sort things out from now on. I doubt very much I am the only one have these problems with this company.

Corker5 I will answer your post later. It is maddening that these people try it on like this.

Roro2277

Hi Ganim,
I'm sorry to hear about the trouble you're having. I've had a lot of issues over the years with our care provider and we're looking to possibly change. We are in direct contact with the district nurse who does what she can but it's limited. Would you mind telling me who you are currently with so that I can avoid them!
Thanks.

GanAnim

Hi everyone, it is not Caremark I am currently dealing with, but I have had experience of them also!

With Caremark someone gave me a gift of a voucher for hours from them. I didn't have problems them not staying the full time, but the office is very disorganised and often don't pass bookings on to the person that would be coming to the house (and I found out would often only mention it to her at the last minute). I thought all this was because I was on a voucher and I don't think they were making money on it (they had given a voucher to a charity to auction and a relative of mine got it for me), but after reading Corker's post now I think maybe this is just what they are like all the time?

On the plus side with them an hour is a full hour, and one of the managers did come out to meet me initially (though went to the wrong house first!) to go through things and explain how it worked and gave me time sheets. So they were much more organised in this way than the crowd I am currently dealing with. But the not knowing whether someone was coming or not was a head-wrecker. I did do a block booking of a set time and day at one stage and that made a big difference, as at least the care-worker knew that she was booked in, but if there was a break/change for any reason it tended to cause problems.

The crowd I am currently dealing with are a different company starting with B. I don't know if I am allowed to name them? I will PM one of the mods to find out.

I have had 2 more appointments since my original post. The person did not complete the full time I had booked, and I have the times they came and left written down. The office have not sent me time sheets, and no word back from the person that was supposed to make an appointment with me to come out to talk things through. I will chase this up tomorrow.

I find it shocking how these companies operate. I had hours before directly from the HSE (with people employed directly by the HSE), and I never had these sorts of problems with them. I also had hours from a charity for a while and no problem with them either. It was a bit of a shock to the system dealing with these companies.