Hello, this is my first post, having accidentally become primary carer to my 97 year old neighbour. It’s been a very long, painful & exhausting fight to get to where we are now which is her living alone with a care package through social services which means she has 2 carers visiting 4 times a day to get her up, washed, dressed, fed & administer medication. As most elderly do, she wears incontinence pads and suffers every couple of months from a UTI. Every time this happens, despite prividing MARS, leaving clear notes for the carers as well as emailing the care company HQ, the carers often omit to administer the antibiotics properly and I have raised this with them each time it happens. Last Tuesday I was with her and whilst her mood was good, she said she was ‘burning down below’ so I called the doctor straight away who prescribed a 3 day course of antibiotics which I collected and left for the carers to administer with a MARS to start that night. I went thr following day & saw that the carers had not started the course the night before as requested so left another note and emailed the care company HQ to ensure they spoke to all carers attending to make sure they gave the antibiotics. By this point, the infection had escalated and my lady had a fever and was very confused and aggressive. Without going into all the frustrating details, the carers completely messed up and failed to administer a 3 day course of antibiotics resulting in me getting a new 3 day course of a different antibiotic as by now my neighbour is really ill and likely built up resistance to the original antibiotic due to not being given in correctly. Fuming, I called the care company HQ and asked him to personally guarantee that the new course be administered correctly, it’s only 6 tablets over 3 days so hardly difficult, his response was that he couldnt personally guarantee that as he is not in the property so I suggested he call each carer when at the property to check they administer them. My question is, is the care company responsible/liable as it seems crazy that administering medication is in the contract as being their responsibility yet there seems to be no accountability - any advice gratefully received as I’ve just discovered that social services have been breaking rules by relying on me to do the 4th daily call for the last 8 months as the care company couldnt fullfill the contract. I have my own chronic conditions and am written off working for life due to them but my neighbour has no one else so without me she is all alone but I cant carry on, every time I think I’m able to step down a bit, something like this happens, it’s almost more work managing the carers than not having them…
It is a toughie as I guess it depends on the Care company. But if your neighbour is NOT non compliant then I agree that the antibiotics should have been administered correctly. The quality of carers and the communication does not sound very impressive frankly. I know in my husband’s case if he ever had Carers it would be a nightmare for them to administer mediation as he is so non compliant that I now put ‘prompted to take tablets 3x without success’ which is far more than a paid Carer would do. Do you think she became aggressive when the infection ‘took hold’? Yes at her age this should not have happened as she is very vulnerable.
Thanks for taking the time to read & reply, I really appreciate it but no, she takes all of her meds no problem at all so definitely not her refusing to take, definitely a carers muck up as they’ve marked the MARS to say they’ve given 7 tablets yet only 6 were prescribed and there is still one tablet in the blister pack. I wondered if anyone knew the legal status of a situation like this? Ultimately she could die if not medicated correctly and as the care company are responsible for administering her medication are they legally liable?
Notify CQC as this is completely out of order.
Also contact Social Services, it’s a safeguarding issue.
Having had serious problems with my own “waterworks” on a number of occasions I feel desperately sorry for the patient. Is she drinking loads, or afraid of ending up with soaking pads?
Thanks I will indeed let social services know but who are CQC?
Sorry, shouldn’t have used the abbreviation. Many apologies.
CQC are the Care Quality Commission, who regulate all care homes and care agencies who provide personal care.
When my mum was very disabled, very unhappy about the care agency, she made a formal complaint to them. Very unusual for mum who normally didn’t do this sort of thing.
They were excellent. It was all dealt with very diplomatically, the care agency were told to pull their socks up, and things improved. Apparently mum was one of many who complained. I always say that it’s so important that people who are unhappy make a complaint, and in doing so make things better for people who cannot speak up for themselves, and have no relatives who can speak for them.
Ah thanks so much and yes you’re right, if we dont hold them accountable, they cant improve and I fear for those without a voice…thanks for your help, I’ll get in touch with the Care Quality Commission. I let so much go as I know the system is struggling but this is too much and a complaint is very much in need!
The Care Quality Commission sets minimum standards which must be met. I haven’t been on their website recently, so can’t say exactly where they are, but they should be easy to find. Unless rules have changed, the home should have given mum a brochure laying out various things, what was supplied free, what the extras were etc. Have you ever seen one?
I know Trading Standars were concerned that many homes were not properly following rules.