About four weeks ago we ssaw the occupational therapist who came up with a lot of suggestions and mostly the equipment has arrived bar the rails for the toilet, it’s been a month and I emailed last week and don’t have a reply. Should I try again this time via Care Direct or am I too early to start thinking about pushing it as these things take time?
Hi Sal,
Are the toilet rails a freestanding frame or do they need to be directly fitted to the walls? If the latter, it might be that they are on order, but no one is free to fit them? I don’t know what Carer Direct is, but I’d contact the OT department again to find out what the hold up is. If you emailed a particular OT, there is a possibility she is on annual leave/ off sick and no one is checking her emails - could you ring instead?
Melly1
Email again.
Not sure about Carers Direct but try emailing the OT department directly to chase things up. Do you have pictures of the rest of the equipment or not? Have you been given a phone number to call? It is possible she is unwell.
I know she was on leave about three weeks ago but didn’t expect it to be this long. The rails need to be fitted to the walls and it’s a council house so permission needed to be sought but I asked the chap who gives the permission when he came about something else and he wasn’t aware of it which makes me wonder if she ever started the process.
Care direct in Devon is like a filter system they take your request and pass it to the right person instead of conctacting a social worker or OT direct.
I will email again tomorrow and if no luck will phone and hope that this time they will accept a Next Generation Text call, previously they have simply disconnected the call which is why I switched to email.
Hopefully you will speak to someone soon.
If it was agreed they were needed, they were needed IMMEDIATELY!
I would ring up and very politely ask them to give you a firm date for their installation, explaining that you are very concerned to learn from the council that no request has been made to them yet.
Nothing happens immediately in this area of Devon there’s always a 2/3 week time lag. Or at least it feels like that. I am unable to do much today due to other apts but have sent an email, I have more time tomorrow so will start calling and being a pest. This will teach me to trust someone else to do something.
Please do not feel embarrassed. I recently applied for DLA for the first time on behalf of my little brother and have had to send them several emails to check on the status of my application. I emailed again yesterday around lunchtime to find out and was then told that a decision had finally been made. I also have asked doctors in the past about hospital appointments.
And yes it is the same in Surrey. Some things really do take too much time. It is ridiculous however.
Thank you Thara, I finally got through and have since discovered that rails are being reordered and she’s not sure the shower chair will work but she is going to send another one and “see what happens”. I’m not entirely sure whose fitting the drop down rails but time will tell I guess.
Locked. Usual reasons