Elderly carer, 89, 'shattered' and upset by missed appointments following home care shake-up

An elderly couple have been left shattered and upset by missed appointments following a council shake-up of home care.

 Jack and Christine Harding say they had a settled routine of domicillary care at their Stoney Stanton home until Monday when Leicestershire County Council launched its new Help to Live at Home(HTLAH) scheme to switch from using 150 smaller independent care firms to a small number of larger companies.

Mrs Harding, 87, suffered a stroke last year and has needed four-times-a-day home care for help getting up, bathing, and cooking since being released from hospital.

However Mr Harding said that after the council switched his wife's care from former providers BM Care to new company Allied nobody has turned up for two crucial early morning appointments.

The 89-year-old said: "This new system has only been going for three days but for two of those nobody came to help my wife get up.

"She has had to be ready for 9am for an ambulance to take her to hospital for chemotherapy.

"I have had to get her ready myself - which I don't mind doing but I'm on my 90th year and I'm shattered.

"People did eventually turn up but not at the time we needed them.

"I can't carry on like this if they continue not to turn up.

"It has made my wife very glum.

"We had a great rapport with our last carers and really we would have like to have stuck with them.

"When you call the council first thing to report the problem you can't get through to anyone.

Mr Harding added: "The council has had weeks and months to prepare for this but still it is chaos."

A county council spokeswoman said: "We are sorry that Mr and Mrs Harding have experienced problems with home care visits during the first days of the new service.

"As soon as we became aware, we raised this issue with the provider, Allied and have sought assurances that future visits will be made in time to help Mrs Harding get ready for her appointments.

"If anyone has concerns about their home care, we would encourage them to call the county council on 0116 305 0004."

The launch of HTLAH has been dogged with difficulties after one of the nine larger firms that signed a contract to take on the work of the 150 independent companies.

TLC Homecare backed out days before the launch of the new scheme went live leaving council bossing begging the former providers to continue with their scrapped contracts while recruiting staff from other council departments to plug any gaps in care.

SOURCE: Leicester Mercury, Dan J Martin