Health care at home: hey, Dont know if anyone else got... - NRAS

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Health care at home

allanah profile image
18 Replies

hey,

Dont know if anyone else got a letter today from Healthcare at home. I got a long apology letter today.

Just a short resume but it says ,

I am writing to apologise for the difficulties that have been caused to some of our patients over the past few weeks while we have suffered a series of disruptions to our services.

It continues, blah blah, offer our sincere apologies, things outside our control affected planning. Since October key medication shortages have arisen, unexpected transfer of a large number of patients from another homecare provider happened etc etc, At the end of November, a peak in telephone calls, caused by this additional demand temporarily exceeded our telephone service capacity and we aware that for several days there were periods when callers could not get through to us. More apologies.... sorry to cause anxiety....

Contigency plans, plus upgrades, plus mprovements to recover normal services ples additional back up services. Since Dec 6th working on backlogs which should have been cleared by 24th Dec.

More telephone network providers and extra call handlers on duty.

Any problems ccall or email hahenquiries@hah.co.uk, will be dealt within 24 hours.

Sorry this is a short resume of a long letter but hope it gives ou the jist of what healthcare at home are saying about recent problems.

hope this is helpful Axx

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allanah profile image
allanah
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18 Replies

Hello

We now seem to have worse services, when dealing with private companies.

They have to keep deliveries on time especially over bank holidays as we still need our meds at a stipualated delivery time

This is still not the fact when we live ten mins outside a main centre

All the best

BOB

Yes I have received the same letter as well this morning. I have also had my 8 weekly delivery of MTX injections this morning, as organised two weeks ago via phone call from them to me.

I keep all my delivery notes on file and later on I am going to check out all the dates to establish how many overdue deliveries have accrued over the past year. Are they being paid by NHS for deliveries which might be one or two weeks overdue, I don't know. I will report back when I have sorted the delivery notes. Lynda x

allanah profile image
allanah in reply to

Georje is the one who put up original post but thought I would let u know about the new letter x

Luthien66 profile image
Luthien66

Yes I got the same letter this morning....blah blah blah....and very sorry at the end. Lets see what their service is like in 2014! xx

allanah profile image
allanah in reply to Luthien66

Hear hear

Yes, I received a copy this morning, therefore will be giving them the benefit of doubt and seeing if the service gets back to normal. My problems with them coincide with the dates given in the letter.

I will therefore not be taking if further as yet. xx

lab-lover profile image
lab-lover

It looks like I might be a victim too. I saw my RA nurse early Dec. Regarding voing onto abatacept. I said to her thzt I supposed it would be after xmas, b ut she was certain it would be before. I phone the RA helpline before, and they reurned my call, nurse was surprised I had not got the drug. I told her about the problems re delovery, that I habe been reading about. She is going to try to chase it up, as her dept has had some complaints. It's not very good when ppl are relying on the drugs to help with pain.

lab-lover profile image
lab-lover in reply to lab-lover

Well well, just taken call from them, so obviously my RA got thru to them. Nice lady went thru all the details, and my first delivery is due on the 7th Jan. She said I will get a text the night before, to give me a 2 hr delivery time slot

Tessthomy profile image
Tessthomy in reply to lab-lover

Well I even had a text message on the 22nd dec to say they were going to deliver next day and it didn't show up. I was in all day and it wasn't left with neighbours .. Not sure where it got to!

Now been without meds for nearly 2 weeks. The NHS rely on and pay for this company to do the work for them to take the strain off them, but they are clearly messing things up for patients at the moment, and it's not really a thing that can afford to be messed about, with people's health at risk.

Over and above, we HAVE to be able to actually SPEAK to a person over a bank holiday if and when these problems arise and not just be left with recorded messages and non replying to emails and voice mails. This is completely unprofessional and unacceptable.

I have written a letter to the Chief Executive who sent out the infamous letter to those who received them.

I am now about to yet again spend another few hours to contact them. Wish me luck!

TT x

hatshepsut profile image
hatshepsut

Got the same letter. They don't sound particularly sorry, just making excuses for not fulfilling contract.

Fact remains that I missed one weeks dose of enbrel due to their incompetence plus a great deal of stress and an enormous telephone bill. And they have still not answered two emails or responded to my specific complaint.

Not good enough, and I still intend to take further action.

Mall profile image
Mall in reply to hatshepsut

I have missed two injections due to the same difficulties and received the same letter. What can we do to take this further. Who can we highlight this too, who monitors this service or lack of it.

benjijen profile image
benjijen

I received this letter as well. It states things are back to normal by 24th Dec - Rubbish. It also states they respond to e-mails with 24 hours - Then why haven't I received a response to mine of 22nd & 27th Dec. It says their 'phone service is better - then why did I hang on for 50 minutes on 30th before giving up! I have now missed a dose of Humira. I e-mailed a response to their letter yesterday. Let's see how long (if ever) I receive a response to that! Tomorrow I will be contacting the hospital for their help. No communication on why they didn't turn up on the 3 booked times for delivery either, leaving me to wait in for nothing!

2plus2 profile image
2plus2

Yes also got my letter, will see what happens next delivery day. Happy new year x

dcj14 profile image
dcj14

I also received the same letter yesterday. I had just emailed a formal complaint to the Operational Quality Manager. He replied a couple of hours later stating they were conducting an investigation and he would get back to me with the report findings. So I'll see what happens, I still intend to complain to PALS through my hospital if things don't improve. If people are missing doses of medication this could be considered unsafe and negligent! They need to take it 200% seriously but I did feel the general letter they sent out to us all was a bit wishy-washy.

Tessthomy profile image
Tessthomy in reply to dcj14

I think the more of us that complain the more likely something will be done. The Regulators of this company should be the ones who deal with this, or the chief executive of HAH. Let's hope you get a response from the operational quality manager! X

Mall profile image
Mall

I got the same letter too. Still it does not explain why they failed to meet there contractual commitment to provide me with my medication for two weeks or who is going to pay my phone bill after spending several hours on an 0845 number trying to obtain a delivery before christmas to no avail or why they did not answer my numerous emails or phone back when they promised to. The CEO's standard letter minimises the very basic failure of the company to meet there contractual agreements with the NHS or acknowledge the distress and pain caused to many patients such as myself left without meds for a fortnight.

Neonkitty59 profile image
Neonkitty59

Yes, got the letter too. I detailed my farcial experiences over the December period on another post. I am just about to try make contact tomorrow as they want to arrange a delivery but I have quite a few left!! It seems to have gone out of sync but better to have more than less.. I knew there was something wrong when an answerphone came on immediately when phoning HaH last month. It was on for days. If I hadn't have had a bad cold and had an extra in hand med, I would too have been left without, like others. I know from speaking to the usual guy from HaH who is normally so efficient, that they had problems trying to deliver and sort out everything this year. I wonder if it is like this each Christmas as last year my delivery was before that time. If there are many people on this forum experiencing problems, chances are - very much so - there are lots of others too elsewhere.

LOUSY4 profile image
LOUSY4

SURPRISE, SURPRISE WE GOT A LETTER FROM HEALTHCARE AT HOME FULL OF APOLOGIES AND FEEBLE EXCUSES. ALL I CAN SAY FORGET THEIR EXCUSES MONTH AFTER MONTH. THEY ARE CAUSING UNDUE STRESS TO PATIENTS. SORT OUT THE PROBLEM HEALTHCARE AT HOME, AND IF YOU CANT FULFILL YOUR PART OF THE CONTRACT GIVE IT TO A COMPANY WHO CAN. THEY ARE NOTHING SHORT OF A PERPETUAL DISASTER, AND THE NHS SHOULD STOP TRADING WITH THEM

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