Should we be writing to our MPs regarding the difficulties we are experiencing with drug deliveries from healthcare at home?

As an RA patient who has missed two enbrel injections due to the changes at Healthcare at Home I am becoming increasingly worried that the company will not be able to resolve their current delivery problems quickly. The standard apology letter sent out does not really acknowledge the stress or distress caused by this company in recent months; the difficulties experienced in phoning, lack of response to emails, broken promises of phone calls, deliveries not arriving when arranged, patients missing doses of medication. By reading the comments on this site relating to this issue I can see that staff have been laid off, others are leaving as they can not cope with what has happened to the company and or with the number of complaints. The service appears to be broken; is it beyond repair. Some contributors to the earlier discussions and questions have suggested taking action. What action can be taken against a private company? Healthcare at home do not appear to have a complaints policy and complaining to the person who answers the phone will not achieve any constructive change. As patients what can we do? We can inform our hospital consultants and hope they ensure that the nhs is not paying for medication that is not sent to patients. We can also write letters of complaint about this to our MPs to alert them to a major issue that has arisen within a section of healthcare that has been handed over to the private sector.

17 Replies

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LavendarLady

4 years ago

I have also received the standard letter from Healthcare at Home. I came very close to running out of Enbrel and was surprised I had not received my usual phone call. I e mailed them and left a message and my contact Ellouise rang back and when I explained I was down to 1 injection, she made immediate arrangements for my next lot which was overdue to be delivered the following Wednesday which it was.

The only course of action I can suggest (apart from writing to your MP which in my case usually only produces platitudes and the party line), is to e mail HatH and keep e mailing until you get a response if the telephone produces no results. You could also report the problems to your Rheumy as they (or the hospital) set this up in the first place. I suppose we could ask to be given a normal prescription but am not sure if the local pharmacies would be able to dispense it. Summer might know.

LavendarLady x

dcj14

I think writing to your MP is definitely worth considering. I made a formal complaint to the Operational Quality Manager at HAH 2 days ago. If I don't get a satisfactory response, I then intend to complain through PALS at my hospital - although first I will contact my Rheumy nurse (who is excellent) to see if she has any other appropriate suggestions as I don't want to bypass my Rheumy team or make it appear that I am complaining about them. If all else fails, I do think I may write to my MP. In my experience MPs are very powerful and I have known MPs to force action over much more trivial matters. I want to try the other complaint routes first to prove that I have gone through the appropriate channels and then hope this will highlight how seriously this matter needs to be taken. All healthcare providers, NHS and private, are also inspected by the Care Quality Commission - check their website cqc.org.uk. They have a section there for the public where we can complain about a care provider - HAH is included on their website, so I may well complain / report via CQC too. Good luck everyone and keep fighting!